The Chance To Say

"Yeah, it's goin' well. So far at least."

"Good to hear. How are you settling in?"

"Fine, fine. I mean, I really can't complain. My roommate's super chill, my escort's a fan, and the pool has a hot tub beside it."

"That why you did drugs Vinyl?"

"No, that's not."

Vinyl laughed to herself as Hail Toss fiddled with her mane while sitting on her bed. Vinyl looked over for a second and continued.

"Alright, I gotta go. But hey, visiting hours are open almost all day, maybe you could come visit after my therapy today?"

"I'd like that. I'll be there around noon? Does that work?"

"Yeah, it should. Bye Octavia."

"Bye Vinyl."

Vinyl hung up the phone and turned to the mare on the other bed. Hail Toss was giving Vinyl a playful look, and Vinyl smiled.

"No, she is not my mare-friend."

"I never said she was."

"Well what was that look then?"

Hail Toss opened her mouth to say something, but soon shut it and shrugged. Rolling her eyes as she walked to the door, Vinyl looked back at the mare.

"Come on then. You're the one who was so excited to get to the hot tub."

"I just figured you could use a quick unwinding before your first therapy session. By the way, it's like school. They go real easy on you on the first day. More of a get to know you session at first."

"I like the sound of that."

The two mares got up and started walking towards the spa area outside. Vinyl was looking around at the décor, and thought she saw a familiar black mane. She stopped for a second and craned her neck to get a better view, but the mane walked away before she could.

"Something wrong?"

Vinyl looked over at Hail Toss, who had turned around when Vinyl had stopped walking beside her.

"Uh, yeah. Just, though I saw somepony."

"Friend of yours?"

"Not exactly."

"Enemy?"

"Sort of."

"Well, let's get to the hot tub. Tell me about it there."

"Alright. I just really hope it wasn't who I thought it was."

"It seems the pony in question ran up to him while he was out here for a smoke, and then ran off this way. See, there's a slight blood trail that goes this direction."

"Hmm, what do you suppose the motive was? I don't think this guy was in with drugs."

"Well, says here he was an agent for Octavia Melody. Get somepony to go to her apartment and deliver the news."

"Got it."

An earth pony stallion with a blue coat and a grey and black mane walked off and started talking on the radio clipped onto his uniform. The pony standing just beside the body of Platinum Record turned to the weeping mare over near the door.

"Should probably talk to her."

The stallion walked over to the orange coated mare and looked at her.

"Madam, officer Blind Spot, I know that you're grieving and probably confused, but I need you to answer a few questions. Can you do that?"

The mare looked up at Blind Spot, her blue mane covering most of her eyes. She sniffed and looked back to where she was before.

"I, I just don't know why this happened."

"That's what we're trying to find out. Now I need to ask you these questions, can you answer them for me?"

"If it'll help find the bastard who did this I'll do whatever you want."

"Good. Now, did he have any enemies that you know of?"

"No, I can't think of any."

"Any connections to drugs, gangs, gambling, alcohol?"

"He drank, but only on special occasions. And he smoked cigarettes, but nothing else."

"Can you think of anypony that might have any motive for wanting your husband dead?"

The mare kept her gaze fixated on the ground, as a tear slowly formed in the pit of her eye.

"No."

Blind Spot wrote a few things down on his notepad and sighed. When he looked up, he could see tears rolling down the mares face.

"Thank you for your time ma'am, my dearest condolences."

Blind Spot walked away and levitated his radio and held the button.

"Seems we don't have anypony you that wanted him dead. Check his latest booking records, see if there was anypony at one of his clients concerts that he had a run-in with."

"There we are."

Octavia pushed a box against the wall beside the door and sighed. She looked at the small stack and smiled.

"You've done good so far Octavia."

As she giggled to herself, Octavia walked over to the pantry and pulled out the can if iced tea mix. After pouring herself a cold glass of water, she dumped a few teaspoons of the mix into the cup and stirred it. Octavia took a long sip of the beverage, and being satisfied with the taste, let out a long sigh.

"Sometimes there is nothing better than a cold glass of iced tea."

As Octavia took another sip, a knock at the door came three times in a row.

"And a knock at the door. Coming!"

She trotted over to the door and opened it up. Needless to say that she was surprised to see two ponies in police uniform standing side by side in front of her.

"Good morning ma'am. Manehatten PD, we have a few questions wed like you to answer."

"Oh, o-o-ok. Please, come in."

Octavia closed the door behind the two ponies when they walked in, and quickly walked over to the chair after grabbing her drink.

"What seems to be the problem?"

"Miss Melody, we have bad news. Your agent, Platinum Record has been murdered."

Octavia's mouth slammed open, and her drink went down to the floor.

"Wh, what?"

"Last night, Platinum Record went into the alleyway of his apartment complex to have a smoke, and his neighbor found him dead the next morning."

"We were hoping for some answers, and I'm sure you are too."

"When we searched the house, we found a possibly suspicious photograph in his briefcase. We suspect it could be a drug, gang, or possibly affair association."

"Do you know this mare mam?"

The cop closest to the door levitated a picture of Vinyl in her orange jumpsuit. Octavia gasped and took the photo.

"Vinyl!?"

"You know her?"

"Yes, yes I do."

"Does she have any connection to your late agent?"

Octavia didn't speak, she just stared at the picture. The two police ponies sat in silence and watched her.

"Wait a minute."

Different scenes of the past few days flashed through Octavia's mind. Walking on the street, arriving at the Air Speed music hall, the stallion at the door. Something clocked inside her, and Octavias mouth dropped open.

"I know who the killer is!"

"How can you be sure?"

"Trust me!"

Octavia looked at the clock on the wall and realized there were 2 minutes until Vinyl's therapy was supposed to start.

"Oh no, she's in trouble!"

"Who?"

"That mare, we need to get to her!"

Octavia stood up and threw on her jacket. The two cops stood up and walked over to her.

"Madam, I'm going to have to ask you to calm down."

"No, the murderer, Vinyl's his next target!"

Octavia pulled the cops outside her door and closed it. After locking it, she ran down the stairs to outside her apartment and started running towards Helping Hooves.

Vinyl walked down a white corridor, Healthy Living at her side. They were walking towards the therapy rooms, and Vinyl gulped.

"Nervous?"

"A little."

"Don't worry, the staff we have here are very friendly, I assure you."

"I hope so."

Healthy Living opened a door and motioned for Vinyl to walk inside. In the room were two chairs and a table, plus a security camera.

"Just take a seat, a therapist will be with you any minute."

"Ok, thanks."

Vinyl sat down and sighed as Healthy Living left the room and closed the door.

"Wonder if my therapist will be a mare or a stallion. I mean, mare would be nice because-"

Vinyl was stopped when the lock on the door turned open and a horribly familiar black mane walked in. The brown coated stallion dropped his briefcase at his side.

"Hello Vinyl."

Vinyl shot out of her seat and got against the wall. She started breathing heavily, and looked at the security camera.

"Open Mind? What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Vinyl. You're sick. I help the sick."

The pony's words were grim and nearly breathless, as if he was speaking on his last breath. As Open Mind locked the door and turned back to Vinyl, he smiled.

"I've never lost a patient before, and I'm certainly not going to let you tarnish my record."

"Listen, I just need simple therapy man, I'm not that sick!"

"You are!"

Open Mind slammed his briefcase down on the table with his sentence, and stared menacingly into Vinyl's eyes.

"Sit."

"What?"

"Sit!"

Vinyl gulped and shakily took a seat. She could hear faint shouting, but she couldn't make out the voice or what they were saying.

"Now. What's going to happen is you are going to listen to me, and you are going to cooperate with me, understood?"

Vinyl said nothing, and Open Minds expression went from what could be taken as kind to anger.

"Understood!?"

Just then, the door flung open and Octavia ran in.

"Vin-"

She wasn't even done the word before Open Mind had turned and used his magic to drive a knife straight into her abdomen.

"No!"

Vinyl shot out of her seat and over to Octavia as she fell to the floor. Two police stallions came in and apprehended Open Mind, pulling him out of the room.

"Octavia. Octavia please say something!"

Octavia looked up at the face of the mare who was now holding her in her hooves.

"Vinyl..."

"Octavia, don't you die on me!"

Vinyl was running along side the gurney the bore Octavia. Octavia's eyes were barely open, and she couldn't talk. The ponies pushing the gurney turned into a room and a nurse blocked Vinyl's entry.

"I'm sorry miss, you can't be in here unless you are family."

"What? That's total crap, I need to be in there!"

"I'm sorry, hospital protocol."

The nurse closed the door, shutting Vinyl out of the room.

"Fuck."

Sorrowful, Vinyl walked to the waiting room and sat down with a sigh. Many hours passed before she looked at the clock and stood up. She walked down the hallway to where Octavia's room was. Just before she pushed open the door, she felt a hoof on her shoulder.

"Miss. You can't be in there. She still recovering."

Vinyl turned around to see the same nurse as before.

"Let me ask you something. If somepony you cared deeply about was somewhere you can't see, possibly taking their last breath, how would you feel?"

"Ma'am, please. You're going to have to leave or I'll be forced to call security."

"Fine."

Vinyl was about to turn around and start walking, but she quickly pushed the nurse down and ran into the room. Before turning to the bed, she jammed a broom into the door handles.

"That'll hold."

She could hear banging on the door as she ran over to the bed and looked at Octavia. Her eyes were closed, and the machine beside her was beeping at a steady pace.

"Tavi, Octavia, wake up."

Octavia's eyes slowly flickered open, and the beeps pace grew slightly quicker.

"Vinyl? How did you get-"

"Don't mind that. Look, for some reason I don't think either of us know, our lives have been getting weirdly dangerous since we met. And I don't know if I'm alone in thinking this, but I think we both have some strange feelings for each other that we don't know how to express. And, before anything else happens, I think we need to-"

Vinyl sentence was cut off when Octavia leapt forwards and locked her lips onto Vinyl's. Just as Vinyl closed her eyes and settled into the kiss, the door burst open and multiple ponies ran in. They stopped themselves when they looked at the scene taking place. The two mares pulled their heads away from each other's and stared deeply into each other's eyes.

"Vinyl. I don't ever want to lose you."

"I don't ever want to lose you either Octavia."

The two smiled warmly and hugged. One of the nurses cleared her throat, and the two mares turned to her with red faces.
"Well, Vinyl, it seems you do have the right to be in here. After all, we don't like to keep couples apart."

To Be Continued...