Party of three

The creak of wagon wheels was heard as the DJ stared at her semi-conscious wife, gently stroking her long black mane. She barely even noticed when a tiny unmarked bottle rolled off the seat onto the floor.

Suddenly an inappropriately calm voice calls out from the front of the carriage breaking Vinyl's concentration."So, pretty crazy what happened back there?"

Her response was swift and cruel, "SHUT UP!"

"I talked to some of the officers on the scene, and apparently a Griffen girl got roasted right outside the bar."

"SHUT UP."

"She's lucky to be alive, Unfortunately, according to the witness, she's the daughter of some Canterlot Bigshot. So odds are the whole police force is gonna be run ragged looking for the culprit."

"I SAID SHUT UP JACKASS!!!!!"

"Hey now, no need to be snappy. I was just trying to start a conversation."

Vinyl growls then looks to Octavia's face and saw that she was now fully unconscious, "Okay she's out, pull over."

Finally, she must be one tough filly to last that long."

Vinyl rolls her eyes as she carefully wedges Octavia onto the seat so she won't fall, "She is, Now are you sure that crap you slipped her only last twenty minutes?"

"Relax, it's only a mild sedative. We use it on perps all the time."

"I, asked, does it only last twenty minutes?" Vinyl growls.

"Well, that's the average at least. for somepony like her, it might not last as long."

"Then I guess we should hurry this up."

With that, the two head towards a nearby alley.

Upon entering the shadows, Donut is immediately sprawled out on the ground courtesy of a swift kick to the face

"OUCH!! What the hay filly. I thought we were getting along."

OH, we were. That is until you decided to brain rape my wife!!!" Vinyl then draws a sharpened butter knife out of her mane and brandishes it aggressively.

Donut raises his hoof as if he were about to ask a question, "Two things filly."

"DONT CALL ME THAT," Screamed the DJ.

"One, I have always been better at magic then you," His horn sparks and a second later the blade of Vinyl's knife was so flush with the handle it was unusable. "And two. What, The Hay, are you talking about? I would never do something like that."

Vinyl tosses away her useless knife and gets in Donuts face, "Don't pull that crap. I saw the look in her eyes. ponies only look like that after you get done with them."

"Ummm, what,...............Oh No, er, I mean, Don’t worry she's fine."

"Fine, you think she's fine!!," Her head begins to twitch, "yeah, I'm sure she's fine!! Just like all the other ponies you've done this too!! Do you even remember Mrs. Loose?! Cuz they've been calling her Barking Mad, ever since you got done with her."

Donut blinks, "Wait, hold on. you remember that too?"

"OF COURSE I DO," She yelled. "She was my neighbor, How could I forget? How the hay did you even know her anyway?"

"I assume, We've been over this," He announces annoyedly. "How was I supposed to know the dog personality was the dominant one? I was trying to help her okay."

"THERE IS NOTHING OKAY ABOUT THIS YO NUTS!!!" She yelled. "Now because of you, and your stupid crush. I'm gonna wake up every morning terrified my wife suddenly thinks she's a farm animal."

"That's not how it works Vinyl. She's gonna be fine."

The Dj's head shook harder and harder as she somehow closed the gap between them even tighter, "Why can't you get it through your thick Skull, I, DONT, LIKE, YOU?"

"I."

"We have nothing in common," She interrupts. We barely Even Know Each Other, "she hollers. So why, The Fuck, do you keep obsessing over me like this??"

"Well."

"Why do you even care if my wife isn't a pony? I don't, why should you?"

With an angry look in his eyes, Donut stands up and pushes Vinyl away. "Because I wasn't about to let my little sister get used and abused by some monster that's why!"

Vinyl takes a step back, "Wait, what now?"

"Enough of this," He yells taking a step forward, "I should have done this a while ago,"

Vinyl takes another step back and trips on a discarded bottle,
"Hey, stay back, I'm warning you."

The stallion sarcastically rolls his eyes then takes another step forward. suddenly his horn flashes and he yells, "Verum Recordabor!"

A semblance of daylight filled the alley as the arcane words reverberated in the DJ's mind.

Vinyl blinks, Then she blinks again, She then gets up from the ground and a scowl crosses her albino face, "What, The Fuck. you actually made me forget you were my brother, Not cool dude."

"Hey, this wasn't fun for me either," He defended. " do you have any idea how disgusting it felt hitting on you like that. I had to retake my undercover training course twice just so I wouldn't vomit."

Vinyl glares, "Why the hay are you here Donut? You better not tell me the folks put you up to this."

Donut winced, "Well i."

"They did, didn't they? Come on Bro, I thought you were cool with me being gay."

Hey now, it's not like that at all. I think its great you like mares. I do too, it gives us something to talk about."

"Then why did you agree to this?"

"Because I missed you Vi," He said bluntly. "I haven't seen you at all since you ran away from home. You didn't even invite me to your wedding, whats up with that?"

Vinyl rubs her hoof, "It's complicated."

"Whats complicated? I punched dad square in the face when he told me to use my powers to, 'Fix You.' As he put it, Doesn't that count for anything?"

"It does, I swear it does. but well...... I didn't invite you because, I figured mom and dad would think that extended to them too.
Speaking of which, what the hay was this about anyway? I thought they realized I was done with them after they told me to stop seeing Tavy. Why do they even care anymore? I'm apparently against everything they believe in."

"They care because your still their little filly Vi. You have to understand it's not entirely their fault."

"How do you figure that?" she snarled.

"Because the roots of the old country are still dug into them. Listen Vi. The night you left they, Said things, That they quickly regretted."

"They better regret that," She interrupts. "How dare they say that about grandma she loved me."

"Yes, that was a big one," Donut interrupts back. "But I've been working with them. And I think they're finally ready to accept you for who you are."

"About time," Vinyl snipped. But you still haven't told me why you did this."

Fine, I'll tell you," He sighed. "Hmmm, how do I put this? You see, I got mom and dad to at least, Accept, that you like mares. But they were still suspicious of Octavia."

"Suspicious of what? They never even met her."

"That's the thing. They learned about her from that copy of Musicians weekly."

"Oh really," Vinyl quipped.

"Yeah, I know. But trust me they looked through it. They didn't just look at the cover and decide, they didn't like what they saw."

"Realy."

"Yeah, Honestly I think you would be impressed how much they've improved. Mom was a little upset that you weren't the one in the dress. But that wasn't the problem."

"So why don't they like Tavy then?"

"Well they looked through the magazine and they got to see all her achievements, You know, Like that orchestra she ran, The awards she won, Oh, And all those celebrities she met."

"And whats wrong with that?"

"How do I put this gently?" He squirmed. "They think she's some kind of elitist snob."

Wha-ha-hat, "Tavy an elitist snob. HA Ha Ha, You got to be kidding. Yea shes a bit of a neat freak, But a snob, Really. Half the time shes more unwound then I am."

"Snobs kinda putting it mildly, to be honest," He says with a grimace. "I mean it was getting damn straight xenophobic in there. I genuinely never knew dad hated Trottingham so much."

"I thought you said they were getting better."

"They are, About the gay thing. But..... when they found out she was from Trottingham. That just opened a whole new can of worms. Dad actually said, and I quote." Donut clears his throat, "She's using her, I just know it. Those damn traitors are always planning something."

Vinyl blinks, "Wait, Traitors?"

Yeah, something about the war with Labarinthia," He shrugged," Don't know what that's about. But anyway, That is where I come in. surprisingly after all that they still want to give Octavia a chance. So they asked me to do a little background check. I didn't want too, but i thought it would set their minds at ease."

"But it didn't end there."

"No, Unfortunately. You see, At first, I was just going to give her record a quick look through and give her a pass. But at the last minute, I found some info that didn't make sense. I'll be honest, I wanted to ignore it so badly. But my detective instincts kicked in, and well, I had to know more."

"What happened then?"

"Gotta tell ya Vi. It was a lot to take in. every new thing I found lead me further and further down a rabbit hole. It was insanity, Days without sleep, Weeks stuck in the library. I almost lost my job cuz of this. There was just something wrong about Octavia, and when I finally found out what."

"That's when you called me last week," Vinyl interrupts.

"Yes," he said bluntly. "But you told me to stay out of it, and hung up."

"Can you blame me?"

"listen Vi, I'm not proud of what I did but...... I just needed to know you were safe. so I planted that message in your mind just so I could get close to Octavia. To make it worse I messed up the spell pretty badly, I can't believe you actually drew a knife on me."

"yeah, what was that anyway? I was totally convinced you were some kind of monster."

Suppressing an entire childhood of memories is pretty hard. I guess I missed some things. probably should have expected it. I mean, My decision to brainwash you Was pretty hasty," He shrugged." Originally, I was actually just going to meet you in the market and Talk to you about meeting Octavia myself. But I got nervous and went with this dumb idea instead.

"I still don't get what your plan even was."

"It was for a test I was conducting on Octavia. You see, there's no real way of being subtle about this..... I found evidence that suggests she may have killed a previous spouse out of jealousy. And I was curious about what her reaction to bringing that up would be... As well as a few other things. Not sure if you care or, not. But she did pass my test with flying colors, for what its worth."

"Tavy was there the day you did this to me. Why didn't you interview her there and get it over with?"

"Two reasons, I needed to know how she acted before and after her secret was found out, And I wanted her to think I could be fun to hang out with before I went psycho on her. I admit, This wasn't my best plan," He shrugged.

"No kidding," Vinyl interrupts grumpily

"Hey give me some credit, When I came up with this I hadn't slept in like two days."

"Listen Bro, since you meant well. I guessss, I can forgive you for all this crap. Maybe, But I gotta ask, was it even worth it?"

"Oh yes definitely," He gleamed. "It certainly made me feel better, And now I don't think I need to worry if you decide to confront her yourself."

"And, Why do I need to confront her?"

"Because you love her sis, That's why. Don't you wanna know who the pony you love really is."

"What if its none of my business? She didn't tell me why should I ask?"

"You shouldn't have to ask she should have told you the truth herself, you married her. You two were planning on having foals together. Don't you think it's your right to know the truth?"

Vinyl stomps down angrily, "Damn it why. why did you have to tell me? I could have gone my whole life without knowing about this."

"Listen Vi, I'm not going to tell you what to do. But you gotta trust me on this one. I know from personal experience, that no healthy relationship, anywhere has a secret this big."

Suddenly The stallions watch starts beeping,"WOOPS, Speaking of which. Sorry Vi I gotta bail, Foal sitter refuses to stay after eight."

"But wait," Vinyl pleaded, "What about."

"You'll get them tomorrow," He interrupts."Once you have them you can do whatever you want."

"But,"

"By the way," He interrupts again."Mom and dad wanted me to tell you, you're still invited to Hearths Warming if you want to come. If you do, make sure you bring Octavia. there very interested in meeting her."

Without another word, Donut leaves the alley and Vinyl behind.

More than a little confused the Dj walks out as well.

Upon returning to the cart she was met by Octavia who had just finished stumbling out and looked like she was about to fall over, "Oh there you are Love. Do you know were that Donut fellow went?"

Vinyl paused then looked to the side. "Oh,..........um,.......Oh yeah, he got a call from the bar. Turns out they did need him."

"Bloody hay," Octavia Moaned. "How are we supposed to get home now?"

Vinyl shrugged, "We could always walk."

"Walk, are you mad? were two drunk mares miles from our home in the dead of the night."

Vinyl put a hoof to her chin, "hmm,........ You got a point there.......... Oh, I know, we can take the cart. I'm sure Bro, Err, I mean Donut won't mind."

"How are we supposed to take the cart Vinyl?" Octavia said concernedly. "I'm too tipsy, and you don't even have a pulling license."

"Oh please," the DJ waved confidently, "I can drive the Wub-mobile how hard can pulling a cart be?"