Hey bro, you’re still awake? I know it’s two in the morning
But I also know that to you, ‘late’ isn’t a thing
Couldn’t stay awake even with my tunes, it’s not fair,
Then I woke up all of a sudden : a nightmare
I know it's not the time, that's it's a delicate subject to dive into
But I needed to let go, I needed to talk to you
So I had a nightmare, it may sound like nothing
But tonight, I'm afraid to lose everything...
Vinyl placed her phone back on the bedside table, under the single lit lamp, projecting beams of light across the room. It was late. Or early, maybe. Didn’t know, didn’t care. She certainly didn’t. She wasn’t asleep, nor was she awake. A sleepwalking zombie, with eye bags like hammocks, and an oversized white shirt as a nightwear. Her blue hair were looking like they just experienced Canterlot Park’s latest rollercoaster, and her mouth was dry as all hell.
“Fucking nightmare…”
Waking up in the middle of the night was the worst. Only slightly worse when it was before a big day at school. Which it was. Shit. She had jumped out of the bed five minutes ago, covered in sweat despite the fifty degrees outside and the absence of heat system in the bedroom, hands clutched, legs weak and a desperate need to scream. Something she hadn’t done for years. She had to force herself for a few moments to put her mind somewhere else. Anything but where it was when she woke up.
“Calm down. Calm down. You’re not there. You’re not in that fucking bus… You’re in your bedroom…”
A single tear rolled down her cheek before being absorbed by the artificial fabric of the T-shirt. She had grabbed her phone immediately: Volume had taken the habit of contacting her when he felt down, maybe it was her turn.
And now here she was, sitting on the bed, legs crossed and back against the wall, trying to forget things she should have forgotten long ago. She took a look at her desk, where layed a brand new pair of sunglasses, with dark purple glasses and black frame. The shape was odd, but it suited her. She reached to the desk to grab them and put them on. This brought her back to that moment on the steps of CHS, where her friends gifted her these. Bon-Bon, Lyra of course…
“... and Tavi.”
There it was. Something else to think about. Octavia. God, she still didn’t know how she felt around her. Well, she felt good, for starters. But then what? She felt good around Lyra too. But it wasn’t the same. Perhaps because Lyra and her were fucking, but that wasn’t the point. Or was it? She didn’t know. But Octavia was special. She was… Octavia, a clumsy and timid porcelain doll who didn’t know much about the world outside her big empty family mansion, and who always had to endure everything and everyone around her. Lyra, Bon-Bon and Vinyl were trying to help her, but some things don’t change in the course of a few weeks. It takes a lot to make someone forget how depressing and shitty their lives can be. Doesn’t help when you have your own pile of issues too.
“Shit I’m tired.”
Hopefully she could get back to sleep and rest for a few hours before school.
}-- FIVE HOURS LATER --{
“Fuck.”
Octavia had always liked mornings. Back in boarding school, we would always wake up about an hour before everyone else, just so she could open her window and enjoy the vivifying chill of the wind, the smell of morning dew and the song of the birds in the trees. It made her feel… happy, which was a sparse resource back then. Well, until the dean ordered her to close the window and get back to bed, that is.
Now here it all was again : the wind, the dew, the birds and the trees. But no one to close the window. No pressure. She still felt happy, but now there was something stronger : freedom, maybe. She couldn’t tell. As students started moving around her, she stepped down the steps leading to CHS’ main entrance, and smiled as the familiar face approaching her from the parking lot.
“Good morning Vinyl, how was your- Oh dear! Are you alright?!”
“...”
“Don’t worry ‘bout it Octavia! She probably had a weird dream and touched herself all night.”
“Touched… herse- What?”
“Nothing!” Bon-Bon interrupted, coming from Lyra’s back to once again protect the integrity of Octavia’s innocence, before taking a look at Vinyl, “Wow! She’s right though! You really look like crap!”
In more ways than one, Vinyl couldn’t answer. Didn’t have the strength to even move her hands. But as she looked at her friends, her eyes caught Octavia’s : the energy and motivation in the cellist’s expression gave her the incentive she needed to gesture briefly at the girls and justify her state of decrepitude.
“She said she was up all night.”
“Oh, I understood ‘I was cooking all night’...”
“Geez! You made some progress girl!”
“Thanks Lyra, but I’m sure you were a much faster learner than I was.”
Vinyl let out a loud coughing sound, hitting the wall with her fist to simulate the laughter she could not produce. Just because she felt like sleeping for twenty hours straight didn’t mean she couldn’t take the piss at Lyra.
“Lyra, a fast learner?” Microchips commented as he passed by, “Back in middle school, it took her months to memorize three words of Spanish!”
“You!” Lyra yelled, as her mint skin turned crimson, “I’m gonna fucking end you!”
Vinyl was now almost on the ground, between laughter and slumber, as Bon-Bon was trying her best to give the guy a few seconds to run, holding her friend by the hips as Octavia gazed at the whole scene from a few feet away.
“Is she… smiling? Uh, I guess she’s gotten more used to our banters.” Vinyl thought.
“Ladies!”
“Wow!” Bon-Bon almost screamed in surprise, letting go of Lyra who went crashing against a bush. The girls were now towered by one of their teachers, an impressively tall lady, rocking the amazing combination of a lab coat and a mohawk haircut.
“Your morning class will soon begin, and I believe Mrs. Cheerilee is waiting.”
The biology teacher turned to Lyra:
“And you, young lady, please watch out for school property.”
“Sure! No worries! The blasted bush won the duel anyways!” The lyrist answered, picking leaves out of her hair, now looking as poorly presentable as Vinyl was.
As the woman walked away towards another group of students waiting for her inside the building, Bon-Bon waved goodbye to her friends, before rushing up the stairs to be on time for her first class of the day, while the other three continued their way towards the usual classroom.
“Still don’t understand what her deal is. What’s with all the rhymes anyway ?”
“I will say, I’m not quite sure about Mrs. Zecora’s general appearance. Do most teachers in public schools dress in such a way?”
“Nah… Wait, do you know who that is?”
Vinyl turned around to follow her friend’s gaze, and found someone, a girl, who she’d never seen before. Dark purple hair, light blue shirt and purple skin, followed by a… purple… dog. Sure, why not. she appeared to be lost, and had difficulties walking. Vinyl barely had the time to approach her to ask if she was okay when Lyra grabbed her arm and pulled her alongside her and Octavia, as they were running down the hallway.
“C’mon dude, we’re gonna be late!”
As Vinyl finally started running as well, she could hear the voice of the girl in the distance:
“What a strange new woooooooooooooorld…”
“...Is she singing?!”
“I did NOT miss maths!”
“...I like maths, I think. It’s fun and challenging, and so rewarding when you manage to solve a problem!”
“Well good for you Octavia! It’s been what? Two days since we last had this class? I feel like it’s been… I dunno, three years!”
“That’s an oddly specific thing to say.”
“I don’t know! I just-”
Lyra suddenly became motionless, her usual stream of jokes and rants stopping as if she saw a ghost. She tapped Vinyl’s shoulder, getting her friend’s attention and pointing her in the direction of…
“...Sunset fucking Shimmer”
Here she was. The insufferable, self-proclaimed queen of CHS, followed by her two… lackeys, for lack of a better word, two first-year students whose only payment most likely was the prospect of being stepped on one day. Vinyl hadn’t heard of her since their… encounter at Pinkie Pie’s party, and she hadn’t been complaining.
“But I guess now that Sombra’s gone, the place of “generic cartoon villain” had to be filled somehow…”
“Hey, uhm… Octavia?” Lyra called “Can you give us a second? We’ll join you in class in ‘bout two minutes.”
“Oh, well… Sure, Lyra, of course. I guess I’ll try and keep two seats in the front for you.”
“In the front, yeeaahhh… Great idea… Thanks girl.”
“Thank god she didn’t see that bitch.” Vinyl thought as she looked at Octavia walking in the other direction, towards history class. She didn’t want to make a mess of things like last time, Octavia had enough going on in her life as it was.
“Should we go ask what she wants?”
“...”
“...Should we go ask what she wants?”
“...”
“Yeah let’s go ask what she wants.”
They started walking towards the crimson-haired girl, as Vinyl looked right into her eyes through her purple sunglasses. She wasn’t scared of her. But she was worried about what the video she had could do to her friends.
“Hello there!” Sunset greeted with her usual obnoxious tone “It’s the school’s new musical celebrity! And… you, I guess...”
This was followed by a mocking laughter from the two subordinates, swiftly interrupted by Lyra’s death stare. Sunset didn’t pay attention, and instead leaned towards Vinyl almost to the point where she was whispering right in the DJ’s ear:
“You know, if you behave well, I may even let you play your little music at my coronation…”
“Coronation?” Lyra interrupted, visibly not amused, “You mean the fucking fall formal? You think anyone’s gonna vote for you?”
“Oh I know everyone’s going to vote for me!” She added, brushing her hair aside like an unconvincing wannabe model, “They don’t have much of a choice, and neither do you…”
“Yeah right. I think I’d rather die right here right now…”
“Oh I can certainly kill your reputation, if that’s what you want. Not that you had much of a reputation to start with… But with this…” She continued while displaying a certain recording on her phone screen, “With this I could easily end the two of you… Maybe even your little rich friend… Tell me, what do you think she’d give in exchange for this? Does she even know?”
Suddenly Sunset’s eyes widened, as she realized Vinyl’s gaze had changed. Before she could react, she was pinned against the wall, with the DJ’s left forearm under her chin, pressing against her neck. Vinyl’s breath was heavy, and her magenta eyes were looking more red than usual. In spite of all this, the bully didn’t seem impressed whatsoever.
“Oh, did I strike a nerve here ? Interesting… As for your little anger burst, just what exactly are you going to do? Hit me, in the middle of the school?”
“That would be a nice start.”
“She’s thinking about it.” Lyra added, translating the signs Vinyl was making with her remaining hand.
“Oh I wouldn’t suggest that. You already have one incriminating video of you… Wouldn’t want the list to get longer now would be?”
“What the hell do you want?” Lyra continued, the crimson of her face contrasting with her mint skin.
“What do I want? Easy: I want you to do a little something for me. Do that and I’ll wipe away the debt…”
“The debt? Why you-”
Lyra was interrupted by Vinyl, who had let go of Sunset and raised her sunglasses to look more closely at that person who thought she could have control over them. She took a small paper and simply wrote:
What.
“See…” The bully continued, “A certain… acquaintance of mine recently showed up in CHS, and I don’t really need her walking around, spreading rumors and lies about me…”
“She sounds pretty cool to me.”
“Would you kindly-” Sunset continued, ignoring Lyra, “-keep her away from… well, anything, really. If you see her talking to someone, or doing something suspicious, I want you to tell me at once.”
“Sooo… You want us to stalk her. And here I thought you had two minions perfectly molded for that exact job.”
“Are you saying you’re not accepting my offer?”
“...”
“Very well then! I’ve got a MyStable account ready to share this video! I’m sure everyone in the city will enjoy your driving skills!”
She paused for a second to face Vinyl:
“Should be hard for you to talk yourself out of it…”
Vinyl had a lump in her throat. A lump made of anger, worries, hatred… towards Sunset Shimmer and towards herself. She had put her friends in harm’s way. And now she had to do the exact same thing to someone she didn’t even know.
“Alright.” Lyra concluded, “We’ll do it.”
She turned around to look at Vinyl, and they both exchanged a few signs nobody else could understand.
No we won’t.
Oh fuck no we won’t.
“So!” Lyra concluded “What’s the girl’s name?”
Volume Bass peeked through the window of his room, glancing over the streets of Manehattan. The sun was getting low, and the autumn wind was sending the ochre leaves on the roof over his head. The sounds they made mixed nicely with the vibrations of his guitar strings, the impacts of his empty beer bottles against each other, and the bus passing in the street outside. He took a look at his cellphone. Vinyl’s message from this morning was still there.
“A nightmare, uh?”
She seemed tense. Maybe he should come, maybe he should be here for her. He thought about everything he saw last time: her friends, that driver, the car… That girl, Octavia… Vinyl was still telling him about her. She was special, that was for certain, but how?
“Aw sis, if only you could see past these goddamn memories…”
But he knew things just weren’t that easy. Even he used to see her, when he closed his eyes: a young girl, with a beautiful voice, skin white as a pearl and blue hair barely reaching her thin shoulders. Smiling. Singing. Loving. Loving her parents, loving to sing and perform small concerts with her older brother, loving her friends, and not knowing what she wanted to do with her life. But it didn’t matter. She was happy. A perfect picture, a fine story.
Then the picture fades. It always does, always fades, twists, changes. Fire. Debris. Screams. The girl is no longer smiling. She’s just lying on the pavement, motionless. Alone. Volume wasn’t there, he should have been there. To protect her. To protect them. He reached his hand towards the phone. Maybe he should talk to his sister about thi-
“No. You don’t have to relive this, Vy.”
He had promised. Promised he wouldn’t bring up the subject anymore. His sister was better now, she had changed. Him… Not so much. Not enough.
“I see you growing up, it concerns me a bit… But in my head, sis, you’ll always be a kid.”
Great, now his head was full of old memories with various degrees of depressing. He needed something to take his mind off all that. He was about to light a cigarette when his phone buzzed again. It was his friend Roxie:
Yo I got booze and nobody to drink with me! Get your ass over here before I invite someone else!
That oughta do it.
“That oughta do it!” Lyra exclaimed, eyes shining as she grabbed the energy drinks in the small fridge, halfway across the apartment. Vinyl could barely hear her from the bed ; her legs were still under the blanket and her skinny arms tightly holding onto one of her gigantic white pillows. It was cold outside, but the warmth of the bedroom was kept by the double glazing. Installing those was the best decision of her life.
“So!” Lyra continued, now standing in the doorway, wearing nothing but her underwear, an opened can of energy drink in one hand and her own bras she had just picked up from the floor in the other, “Are you gonna tell me what your plan is?”
Plan?
“Y’know, concerning that… Twilight Sparkle girl… God, that’s a weird name.”
You’re one to talk.
“Shut up! Shut up!” Lyra yelled, jumping on the bed to get a few punches at Vinyl’s legs, trying her best not to be cautious about the drink in her hand whatsoever, “At least my name isn’t an overused comedic sound effect!”
The two took a pause from the cat fighting, laughing together as Lyra pulled the blanket back on her body, burying herself beneath the warmth of the fabric. She looked at the DJ, and realized she also was facing her.
“What?”
Nothing. You’re just too sexy tonight, I’m wondering if there’s something wrong.
“You fuck-... Thank you, I guess.”
Don’t thank me, I was kidding.
“BITCH!”
After delivering a few unsuccessful punches, the lyrist finally got tired and put her arms back under the sheets. Her partner was still looking at her, with these magenta eyes Lyra loved so much, and which according to her looked like red cabbages.
“Sooo… What’s the plan?”
Vinyl shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t know, of course not, she didn’t think these sorts of things through. Only thing she knew was, they needed to get that video back, one way or another.
“We’re probably gonna have to do what she asks, uh?”
What?!
“Yeah…” Lyra admitted, “I mean, she’s probably already made copies of the vid, so stealing the original won’t do us any good, although the irony of stealing an evidence of us committing theft is really fucking ironic. And as much as I’d like to tell her ‘Do it bitch, we don’t care’, it’s just… not the right decision. Y’know, it could get your bro and the others into some serious shitstorm as well…”
“She’s right. Of course she’s fucking right.”
“Of course I’m right.”
You can read minds now? Vinyl signed at her friend, with a sarcastic grin.
“Nah, you’re just making your lyra-is-right-but-i-can’t-tell-her-that face. It’s very obvious you know.”
So you’re going to obey?
“Did I say that? I didn’t say that.”
She paused to look at Vinyl with a gaze filled with all kinds of perversion, as she placed her arms around the DJ’s hips.
“You and I both know, we’re not good at following the rules…”
After a few seconds of eager wait from Vinyl, her partner’s lips finally landed on hers, exchanging a long and passionate kiss. She could feel the warmth of Lyra’s bare skin under her cold hands, and her short hair tickling her forehead.
“Say…” Lyra added, interrupting the kiss to look closely at Vinyl, putting two fingers on the DJ’s pale lips, “You really needed this, didn’t you?”
“Not gonna lie, today hasn’t been the dopest.” Vinyl thought, as she nodded to her friends. She crossed her legs and put her head against Lyra’s shoulder, enjoying the warmth of the skin, and closed her eyes as she moved her hands in front of her friend :
So, you got any news from that girl?
“Yeah, actually. Been meaning to tell you this: she met with Pinkie Pie and Applejack in the afternoon. Apparently she’s a new student from some other city, dunno where. And…”
And?
“...And for whatever reason, she wants to win the fall formal.”
What? Vinyl asked, shaking her hands and raising her head away from the comfort of the shoulder in surprise.
“I know right? What the fuck! Anyway, according to Pinkie, it’s the first time in a couple years that Sunset Shimmer has actual competition for the prize.”
“Is that why the other bitch wants us to follow this ‘Twilight’?”
But what does she want from that contest?
“Hell if I know!” Lyra shrugged “Maybe she’s watched too many beauty pageants! Or maybe it has just something to do with Shimmer. The two don’t really seem to get along.”
I don’t think she gets along with anyone.
“So what do we do?”
Vinyl paused to give more thoughts to this whole situation. At the current time, she could not care less about some high school contest. But they needed that video back. And for that, they needed a plan. One that didn’t involve getting caught in some outside drama.Fuck Sunset Shimmer, and fuck that other girl, for all she cared. Protecting Octavia and the others was her priority. And she wasn’t sure if she could manage this on her own : last time she tried was how she got herself in that mess…
At some point, they were going to have to tell Octavia.
Author's Note
Damn howdy eh ?
Didn't think I'd be getting back to writing anytime soon, but here we are.
I made the big jump : I deleted "Silent Love - Part Two", and I have started it anew, rethinking it from the ground up. I mean, not really : this first chapter is pretty much the same, with slightly longer, and I'm hoping better written, dialogues.
If you're interested in knowing what exactly happened, everything is detailed here.
If not, welcome! I'm really pumped up by the prospect of writing again and I am happy to count whoever's reading this into my reader base ! Let's (re)live this journey together !
Don't hesitate to drop a comment, even if you already have read the old version! Especially if you did, really!
I'm very excited to share whatever I have in store for Vinyl, Octavia, her friends, and all of you.
Next Author's note will be about my personal life, to update anyone who's interested, because I am still French, therefore self-centered.
Love you, good to be back.
Antoine
