The Chance To Say

"What do you mean she checked her out? I had her as a patient!"

"I'm sorry, but Open Mind, was she really sick?"

"Of course she was! She stabbed a hospital guard with a used needle!"

The mare behind the desk sighed and looked at the peeved stallion. She pulled some forms out of a drawer of her desk and passed them to Open Mind.

"Look, the mare who checked her out said something about rehab. I recommended her this place. Maybe you can check there and see if they'll let you see her as your patient."

"Helping Hooves Rehabilitation Facility? Ugh, this job doesn't pay me enough to deal with this crap."

Open Mind turned and walked out of the building, leaving the receptionist to frown.

"Umm, your welcome! Jeez."

The receptionist scoffed and looked down at her work. After a few minutes, another pony walked over to the reception desk holding a cup of coffee in his wing.

"Hey Ice Blossom. How's things?"

Ice Blossom looked up at the navy blue stallion standing with a warm smile on his face.

"Hey Mickey. I'm good, you?"

"Fine. Anything interesting happen?"

"A mare got checked in and checked out on the same day."

"I thought we had a minimum?"

"I guess not."

"Anypony I would know?"

"Vinyl Scratch."

"Hmm. Seems familiar, just can't place it. Who checked her out?"

"Let's see here... Octavia Melody."

"Wait a minute, Octavia Melody? Grey, black mane. Little bow tie thingy?"

"Yeah, you know her?"

"You don't?"

"Should I?"

"She's a huge hit around here, cello player I think. I don't actually listen to that stuff, I've just heard of her."

"Hm. Didn't know. How's the internship going?"

"Eh. I feel like my boss is sort of milking the fact that he knows I don't wanna quit."

"Ah, that kinda sucks."

"Little bit, but I got my ways of getting revenge."

"Like?"

"WHO THE HELL PUT THIS GECKO IN MY COFFEE MUG?!"

"I should go."

"Good luck Bolt."

"Thanks Blossom."

Mickey quickly trotted down a hallway and into an office. Ice Blossom chuckled to herself and continued with her work.

"Wonder how those two are doing anyways."

"So, when am I getting checked in?"

"As soon as possible. If you're okay with it, I'd like for you to be checked in today."

"Really?"

"Are you okay with that?"

"Yeah, of course."

Vinyl and Octavia were walking back to Octavia's apartment and chatting. Vinyl stopped suddenly and put a hoof on Octavia's shoulder.

"Wait."

Octavia turned around to see what looked like nervousness on Vinyl's face.

"What is it?"

"You've, you've helped me so much lately, I don't know if a I even can repay you."

"Don't worry, I'm happy to help."

"Yeah but still. I wanna make it up to you somehow."

Octavia looked down and thought for a second, thinking of a any way Vinyl could repay the debt she felt. When an idea popped into her head, she smiled and looked at Vinyl.

"Tell you what. You go to rehab tommorow, I have a show on Friday, if it goes well, I'll get you out of rehab in a few days so you can help me move."

"You're moving?"

"If the show goes well."

"Cool. And I'm assuming by help, you mean I do most of the work and you watch?"

"You can do as much as you feel you should."

"Well, guess I'm doing it all. That sounds awesome. Thank you so much Octavia."

"You're very welcome. Now come on, let's go."

The made their way to Octavia's apartment complex and walked up the stairs. Octavia opened up the door and the two walked inside. Vinyl flopped down on the couch and sighed.

"Rough day."

"I bet. Coffee?"

"Sure."

Octavia walked over to the kitchen and put the kettle on the lit stove burner. She walked over to the chair next to the couch and sat down. Looking at the wall clock across from her, she noted that there were still three hours left until her usual bedtime.

"Are you hungry?"

"Nah. I got a free meal at the hospital. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me."

Octavia giggled a little bit and looked at the wall blankly. When the kettle started whistling she stood up and walked over to the kitchen. After pouring the two cups of coffee, she put them on a tray and walked back over to the living room. She set the tray down and Vinyl took a mug.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Octavia sat back and got comfortable in her chair. She took a long swig of her coffee and sighed.

"Did you have any weird dreams or revelations while you were asleep?"

Vinyl set her mug down and thought for a second. She did have a dream, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to share it with Octavia.

"No, it was basically just falling asleep and waking up. You have any weird dreams recently?"

Again sipping her drink, Octavia wondered if she should tell Vinyl about the dream she had earlier today. Not knowing how Vinyl would react was slightly worrying, so she decided to tell a different version of the story.

"Well I had one today, when I fell asleep. It was me and, some stallion, we were sitting on a hill watching fireworks, and he suddenly turns to me and proposes."

"Hm. Weird. Did you know the stallion?"

"Not really."

"Weird."

Vinyl took another sip of her drink and yawned.

"Hey, you mind if I have a quick shower?"

Octavia had been looking at the guest bedroom and wondering if she should make up the bed so Vinyl could sleep on it. When Vinyl asked her question, she looked back and stood up.

"Of course. Bathroom's that door over there, if you need anything, just ask."

"Thanks."

Vinyl trotted over to the bathroom and shut the door behind her. After a minute or so, Octavia heard the water turn on and she returned her focus to the guest bedroom.

"Might as well make her last night sleeping here a good one."

She walked over to the bedroom and flicked on the lights. Taking in how messy the room was, she got to work instantly and tried to remember the last time she even needed to use it.

"Maybe I should just turn this room into something else. Would it be worth it? I suppose if I'm moving soon it wouldn't be worth all the effort. Would've been nice if I had thought of this earlier, could've made this into a room for practice, or maybe a little home gym."

At this point, Octavia had gotten so lost in her ramblings that she hadn't noticed the shower turn off. Vinyl had mostly dried herself off and walked back into the living room wearing a different sweater. She looked around and saw that Octavia was in the other room and walked over.

"Jeez, gonna roll out the red carpet next?"

Octavia dropped the flower she was holding into the vase on the nightstand and looked turned to look at Vinyl. She blushed slightly as she looked around at the room.

"I may have overdone it."

"I'm just jokin' with ya. It looks great."

"Well I hope you like it, it's yours for tonight."

"Jeez, it's gonna take more than helping you move to repay you."

"Don't worry, I've been meaning to fix up this room for a while now."

Vinyl sat down on the edge of the bed and looked around. Closing her eyes and laying back, she immediately started smiling.

"Oh yeah, this is nice."

Octavia chuckled and went into the living room for Vinyl's things. She took the bags into the guest bedroom and and looked at the resting mare.

"Well, I'm actually quite tired. I hope you have a good sleep Vinyl."

"I'm sure I will, thanks Octavia. You have a good sleep too."

"I'll try. Goodnight Vinyl."

"Goodnight."

Octavia turned off the lights walked out of the room as Vinyl's got under the covers and settled in. Octavia sighed as she put their mugs in the sink and walked back to her room. Just like Vinyl had done, she flopped down onto the bed and exhaled greatly. After about a minute of just laying down she got under the covers and settled in for the night.

"You're on. Good luck."

Platinum Record walked off stage as Octavia pressed her bow against the strings of her cello and took a deep breath. She began playing the song she'd written, starting slow and slowly getting faster. She kept her eyes focused on the instrument, not daring to look up. She was reaching the bridge of the song, a part she had made slightly more complex. As nervousness set in slightly, she felt she needed an inspiration, some vague reason why she needed to make this perfect. For only a fleeting second, Octavia looked up and saw a sparkling bright blue mane and when she looked down her bow was on the floor. With a red face and a racing mind, Octavia looked up at the angry crowd. The blue had disappeared from it.

Octavia awoke with a gasp of nervousness and fear. She looked around and realized she was still in her bed. A look at her clock revealed that it was two thirty seven in the morning, and she could go back to sleep. For some reason she didn't understand, she felt like she needed to get up and move around.

"Wonder if Vinyl's been having any weird dreams either."

"I'm sorry Vinyl, I just can't keep you here anymore."

"So, you're just gonna throw me out?"

"I'm sorry."

Octavia slammed the door shut and left Vinyl out in the hallway. Vinyl levitated her bags and walked down the stairs to the lobby. She looked back at the bottom of the stairs and sighed, tears starting in her eyes.

"It's fine Vinyl. You don't need her. Yeah, I can make it outside."

Vinyl held her head high as she walked out of the building and into the freezing rain.

"Fuck. Wasn't expecting rain."

She flicked her hood up and started walking down the street. Colder and colder the wind grew as Vinyl slowly made her way down the street. With no idea where she was going, Vinyl wandered aimlessly for what seemed to her like years. Stopping by an alley for a minute for a bottle of water in her bag, she heard a voice.

"Gimme the bags."

She looked over to she a stallion that was levitating a small knife.

"What? No, I'm no-GAH!"

Vinyl cried out in pain when the stallion impaled his knife deep into Vinyl's side. She fell to the ground as the stallion levitated the bags of of her body and ran. Vinyl laid on the ground, bleeding and staring into the distance from which she'd come. For some reason, Octavia's apartment complex was the only building she saw.

Vinyl shot upright and looked around at the room she was in. After quickly checking her side, she was relieved to know that it was only a dream.

"That dream was fucked."

Wanting to go back to sleep, Vinyl laid her head back down on the pillow. Though she was tired enough, something inside of her wanted her to get up and out of her room. Following the non-existant command, Vinyl threw the covers aside and stepped off the bed. After a quick stretch, Vinyl peeked out the slim space in between her door and the doorway trim and looked around. She could see a faint glow coming from Octavia's room. She opened up the door and quietly snuck out and into the living room. Seconds later, Octavia opened her door and walked out into the living room.

"Oh, hey Vinyl."

"Hey. You're awake?"

"Yeah, bad dream."

"Same."

Octavia walked over to the kitchen and reached into the refrigerator.

"Carrot?"

"Sure."

Octavia took out two carrots and passed one to Vinyl. Vinyl levitated it and took a bite out of it while walking over to the kitchen table. Octavia sat down in the spot closest to her room, and Vinyl sat in the spot adjacent to Octavia.

"What was your dream like Vinyl?"

"I don't really remember the whole thing. Basically I was out on the streets, and some robber came up to me and stabbed me."

"Jeez, that's quite morbid actually. You suppose there's anything that caused that?"

"The robbery?"

"No, the dream. Like some sort of event in your life that caused that dream."

Vinyl sat and thought for a second. She'd never been robbed before, and she didn't want to mention the part about being kicked out.

"No, not that I can think of. What was your dream like?"

"Ah, I just had one of those dreams where I mess up on stage again."

"Oh, that sucks. Doesn't that fuck with your nerves?"

"A little, but I remember that it's just a dream and it'll be fine."

Vinyl nodded and took another bite of her carrot. The two sat there for not even a minute in silence before a knock at the door broke it.

"Who the hell could be knocking at my door at this hour?"

"I'll get it."

"You expecting somepony?"

"No, but I just wanted to answer it for you."

"Oh, thank you."

Vinyl smiled as she walked over to the door and opened it. Her smile faded accompanied with a short gasp at the sight that met her. A stallion with a briefcase at his side and a frown on his face was standing, dripping wet from rain, in Octavia's doorway.
"Hello Vinyl."

To Be Continued...