Shipwrecked

Chapters

Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VII-2
Chapter VIII

Chapter I

Octavia couldn't believe it. Royal Equestrian, the famous cruise line, had finally hired her orchestra… and she had been put in a room with her. She wasn’t surprised that her orchestra had booked a double room for her, not at all – while the cruise company was paying them, due to an administrative error, they’d had to pay for their own rooms. What did surprise Miss Octavia Philharmonica was that she had been booked not in a room with another member of the orchestra, but instead in a room with that vile hooligan who called herself a “DJ,” one Miss Vinyl Scratch. As it turned out, the DJ had been hired to preform in the on-ship club, while the orchestra would be playing at the events held in the ballroom. In other words, the events with actual class. She had already discussed the terms of staying in the same room with the DJ, who had been rather dismayed at the “No blaring dubstep” and “no getting drunk in the room” rules (and had been somewhat confused at the “never touch my cello” one), but had agreed to them after noticing the validity of Octavia’s threat to throw her off the ship if she did otherwise.

Octavia sat alone in her shared room. It was only the first night on the cruise, but Vinyl Scratch was already at the club, DJing for the more rambunctious crowd. As for Octavia, the orchestra would not be preforming until the formal opening dinner the following evening, so she had the evening to herself. She had wondered why the opening dinner was on the second day, but eventually justified it to herself as tomorrow would be the first full day on the ship. The massive, twelve-story, thirteen-hundred-passenger ESS Harmonius had been commissioned and christened by Princess Celestia herself in celebration of Miss Twilight Sparkle and her friends once again saving Equestria with the magic of the Elements of Harmony. Octavia smiled, mentally replacing that garish pink earth mare with an image of herself, bearing the Element of Laughter around her neck. Despite keeping the appearance of being a stiff Canterlot mare, her closest friends knew of her softer, happier side, and how much she really did love to laugh. As she imagined this she gave a light chuckle, before shaking the image from her mind and sipping on the glass of wine she’d poured for herself. As more of the wine left the glass, Octavia once more found her mind drifting towards fanciful adventures with the Elements of Harmony. Mental images of herself defeating Discord, banishing Nightmare Moon, or trying to save the wedding of her best friend’s brother came to her as her mind became further clouded with the alcohol. She brought the glass to her lips once more, only to find the glass had no wine left to give. She sighed, and glanced at the clock on the wall.

Eleven thirty… I’ve had a couple glasses of wine, it would be wise to stop now and go to bed, and get a good night’s sleep, the gray earth mare thought.

And so she did. Or at least she tried.

Some hours later, Octavia awoke to a rather subdued knocking on the door. Rubbing her eyes with her hooves, she looked at the clock.

Three seventeen… AM? Whoever’s knocking better have a damn good reason…. It was then that she realized Vinyl Scratch wasn’t in her bed, and in an instant she made the connection.

“Umm… Miss Octavia? I forgot my key in the room before I left to go DJing…” a muffled, apologetic voice came through the door.

Ugh. What an idiot.

“Anyway… would you mind letting me in? I’d like to get some sleep…” Vinyl’s voice continued as Octavia rolled out of her bed and shuffled to the door.

“Honestly, Miss Scratch,” Octavia said groggily, a hoof on the door handle, “I’m sure any of the dozens of stallions in your club would have offered to share his bed for the night. Probably several of the mares, too. Why couldn’t you sleep with one of them, like you usual-” Octavia’s voice was cut off as a hoof slapped her across the face. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw the anger burning in the eyes of the snow-white unicorn mare. Her first thought was to wonder why this ruffian lacked her glasses. Her second was how beautiful Miss Scratch’s brilliant ruby eyes were, despite the anger. Her third was to question why she’d been slapped.

“Miss Scratch! What on ear-”

“Shut up! I’m not a whore! The papers are a load of shit! The one night I decide to crash at one of the partygoers’ apartments happens to be the one night he also had his reporter friend sleep over! We shared a bed but didn’t do anything! But no! That reporter dragged my name through the mud, taking pictures of us passed out drunk in a bed! And now fucking everypony thinks I am fucking everypony! Sure I haven’t been completely straight-laced,” the anger in Vinyl’s voice broke, giving way to what Octavia thought sounded like sorrow, “but I’ve never even had a stable relationship last long enough to get that far! And now the one pony who I thought might have respect for me as a fellow musician thinks I’m a slut! Great! And on top of that, someone stole my glasses! Those were the last thing my dad gave to me before… before….” Vinyl Scratch trailed off before breaking into sobs.

Octavia’s eyes softened a little as she noticed the tears on Vinyl’s cheeks. “Miss Scratch, please, it’s three in the morning and you’re making a scene-”

“You’re damn right I’m making a scene! I-” Vinyl stumbled forward, ending up with her face buried in Octavia’s neck

The pity in Octavia’s heart evaporated in a second as she smelled the alcohol on her extremely drunk roommate. “Miss Scratch. It is three in the morning. You are drunk. You are making a scene. Get in the room and go to bed. We can sort this out in the morning.”

Despite the liquor, Vinyl noticed the sternness in her roommate’s voice, and complied. She moped over to her bed and flopped down. A few final sobs choked out of her throat before she passed out. Octavia wondered how she could go from so worked up to asleep in mere minutes, before returning to her own bed and falling asleep.

She awoke a few hours later, this time of her own accord. The clock now read 10:37. She hastily rolled out of bed and rushed to the bathroom.

Late, late, late, going to be late for practice, going to be late…

A couple strips of hay-bacon in her mouth and her cello slung over her back, Octavia opened the door and began to leave. She turned, and noticed her roommate still asleep, snoring loudly. She trotted back inside and scribbled a note.

Miss Scratch,

I apologize for the assumptions I’ve made about you, and I am perfectly willing to sit and talk things out with you. Unfortunately, I have to attend a rehearsal for the orchestra. I should be back by 3:00 this afternoon, if you’re still here. I’ll see you later, I guess.

She left the note on the bathroom counter, and quickly made her way out the door, accidentally letting it slam behind her. She hoped it hadn’t woken Vinyl, but didn’t have time to check, if she planned on arriving on time for her 11:00 rehearsal.

In truth, the slamming door had caused Vinyl to wake up. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, before rolling out of bed and onto the floor. Rubbing her sore flank, she got to her hooves and shambled into the bathroom to shower. She saw the note on the counter, read it quickly, and got in the shower. Her head was sore, she was still mad at that fancy-pants Octavia, and her glasses were still missing. She stayed in the shower for at least forty-five minutes, letting the warm, relaxing water wash over her body and idly creating and popping bubbles of water with magic. It was something that amused her – doing simple, pointless tasks with magic. It was a good way to stay fit, magically, too. A unicorn had to practice magic, at least a little, every so often, or they might lose their abilities. At any rate, after steaming in the shower long enough to clear her head, and went back to her bed. She considered turning on the television and just chilling until Octavia returned, but thought better of it.

This is a cruise. I can watch TV at home. I should go up on deck, enjoy the pool, something… just not watch TV. That’s not what this is for.

As Vinyl went to leave, she made sure to have her room key hanging around her neck, so as to avoid another incident with her roommate. Heading down the hall and up the stairs, Vinyl reached the upper deck of the enormous ship and drew in a deep breath. The air was cool and refreshing, and carried a mild salty flavor too. It felt exactly as sea air should, she thought. Up on the top of the ship, the slight rolling of the ship was more noticeable, but not enough to set her off. It was, apparently, enough to make some other ponies sick, and she winced as an older stallion hurled over the railing, his wife patting him on the back while trying not to look at the puking pony.

Walking further towards the bow of the ship, she noticed ponies sunbathing, napping, reading books, or just casually conversing with friends, relatives, and lovers. The white unicorn couldn’t help but feel a little envious of the pairs of rather obviously romantically involved ponies, loving kisses and unashamed cuddling on the lavish deck chairs under the ocean sun. She blushed a little as she passed a mint-green unicorn and her earth mare lover who probably should have been considering heading back to their room, making her way towards the pool. The water sloshed back and forth gently, mirroring the slight rocking of the ship. She slipped her room key into one of the cubbies near the pool before sliding into the water, catching a mouthful of the chlorinated… salt water? They must get water from the ocean and treat it, she thought, that’s pretty clever.

Splashing and swimming until it no longer amused her, Vinyl Scratch glanced at the giant clock mounted over the pool. Two thirty? I should probably head back to the room… She climbed out of the pool, toweled off, grabbed her key, and headed back below decks. Approaching her room, she levitated the key from around her neck, inserting it into the lock and twisting, only to find that the door was already open. She pushed it aside and trotted in, only to see Octavia sitting on her bed. Her eyes narrowed and she opened her mouth to let loose some snide comment about self-respecting musicians, then noticed Octavia was holding something in her hooves – a pair of black-rimmed sunglasses with purple lenses. Swiping them from Octavia’s hooves, Vinyl Scratch magically returned them to her face, still glaring at the gray earth mare.

“Miss Scratch, I-”

“Look. We both made some regrettable decisions last night. I was… slightly inebriated… and you made some assumptions about me based on what the papers said. I don’t blame you for your reaction, but I wish you had gotten to know me before going off like that. Thanks for getting my glasses back.” Vinyl Scratch sighed.

“Miss Scratch. That’s what I was trying to say – I’m sorry I made those assumptions. I’m not happy you staggered back to the room, drunk, at three in the morning, but at the same time I’m glad you did get back and didn’t ‘crash’ somewhere else, as you might put it. Whether or not I personally know or like you, I certainly wish you no ill will or bodily harm.”

“That’s… actually really nice of you. Say, how did you find my glasses?”

Octavia blushed a little, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof, before awkwardly beginning, “I… I kinda asked the Captain to make an announcement… He’s a really nice stallion, with a beard an-”

“You just asked him to ask the pony who stole my glasses to bring them back?” Vinyl asked, incredulous.

“Well, no… I agreed to do a private performance for the crew… and the pony that returned your glasses gets an autographed copy of each of your albums,” Octavia replied, blushing a little more.

Vinyl raised an eyebrow, before inquiring, “That I can deal with, but… a ‘private performance,’ huh?”

It took Octavia a moment to realize the implication the DJ Unicorn was making.

“N-no! That’s not what that means!” Octavia’s face flushed completely red, and she contemplated throwing something at Miss Scratch, if there had been anything on hoof to throw. Vinyl Scratch threw her head back in laughter.

“So… I know we kinda got off on the wrong hoof,” she offered, looking over at the irate earth mare, “So how about we make a deal? I go to your concert, and you come to my nightclub when it’s over? We both learn some more about each other’s music, and maybe get a little mutual respect going?”

“I’d prefer not to, but I see the value in the venture. Very well, Miss Scratch. Just, please, behave yourself at the concert.”

“Wouldn’t dream of doing otherwise. So, see you tonight?”

“Yes. See you tonight.”

***

Octavia stood on the stage, staring into the audience. Hundreds of ponies, her parents included, bedecked in their finest suits and dresses, including a few white unicorn mares – but not a single one of them with the telltale disheveled two-tone blue mane.

Why am I not surprised, she thought to herself, sighing. I should have known she wouldn’t show up. She probably still expects me to go to the club afterw- hmm? What’s this? Oh! She’s here! … what is she wearing.

In waltzed Vinyl Scratch, wearing what appeared to be a glowing dress. As she approached the stage, making her way towards the front row, it became more apparent that she was indeed wearing a glowing dress – or, more accurately, a dress with active glow sticks integrated in the design. Octavia couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It was almost as though it were intended to be formal wear for a rave. It was extremely odd, but at the same time, it was beautiful – a gorgeous, white, flowing creation with blue and green glow sticks following the neckline, with red and purple glow sticks providing soft glows on her haunches and legs to enhance the effect the dress had on her form. To say it was stunning would have been an understatement. It was beyond anything she’d ever seen, and must have been a nightmare to design. Octavia watched as the light cast from her roommate’s form shifted and changed, elegantly casting their dim, shadowy lighting along the floor and the ponies she walked past. As always, her familiar purple shades covered her eyes. A few ponies in the crowed shot disgruntled glances at her, but most simply appeared shocked.

Octavia heard a pony cough next to her and was brought back to reality, and realized she had been staring at the unicorn with her mouth slightly open. Her head swiveled to locate the origin of the cough, and she saw Beauty Brass smile and wink at her, as if saying, “I won’t tell anypony.”

Octavia facehoofed and looked over at the conductor, who looked mildly frustrated, and raised the baton, the various musicians all shifting slightly in preparation to play. The baton flicked once and the orchestra began.

For Vinyl Scratch, to say it was “enrapturing” would have been an understatement. The music was so completely different from what she was used to making and playing, and she loved every moment of it. The deep, smooth sounds resonating from Octavia’s cello were slow, calming, and simply elegant. Contrary to what normally happened when she listened to music, she felt her heart rate drop as the soothing audio filtered into her head. It was… beautiful. She found her eyes glued to Octavia, the gray mare not even looking at the conductor – she had her eyes closed and moved like she was in a whole different world. She didn’t need to watch the conductor. She just knew what to play, and when to play it. It was truly amazing. Suddenly, Vinyl was aware that the only instrument still playing was Octavia’s cello, and that a spotlight shown down on the gray mare.

She’s truly at the top of her game, Vinyl thought, breathless. She must be the best living cellist. And I’m sharing a room with her. For a week. Surely she could teach me something about rhythm, tune, something, anything to make my music better.

Octavia picked up the pace of her playing, the acoustics of the massive room making it sound like there were actually several ponies playing the same song, slightly out of sync, creating a euphoric effect for the stunned DJ. When Octavia finished playing, she flung her bow and arm out in a perfectly straight line, before bringing it back across her body, bowing, her chest heaving. Before the cellist was standing upright again, Vinyl Scratch had stood up and was clapping as loud as she could.

“Yeah! Go Octavia! That was AWESOME!” the unicorn yelled, before realizing that she perhaps had the wrong reaction. Lowering her voice several decibels, she continued clapping, “Er, I mean, bravo! Bravo! Yes, bravo!” Vinyl was a little embarrassed at this point, but not particularly bothered by the fact that the other ponies weren’t cheering equally as loud for the utterly astounding performance she had just witnessed. As she turned to chastise them, an angry voice hissed at her from the stage.

“Miss Scratch!” Octavia whispered crossly, “This is not the appropriate manner to express your appreciation of this performance!”

“I… I’m sorry… I just thought…” now Vinyl cared about the embarrassment. She thought she’d done something nice, something right, and shown her respect for the cellist. Tears began to form in the corners of her eyes when a voice neither mare recognized burst from somewhere in the middle of the audience.

“She’s right, you know! Why should we be so restrained when those entertaining us have gone so all-out? I say, rock on pony girl! Your music is beautiful, and so are you!” Murmurs of approval began to spread through the crowd, and Octavia blushed a bit at the complement, and searched the crowd, trying to find the source of the voice. Unfortunately, before she could, the volume and commotion gradually increased to a roar of cheers and whoops and stamping ponies. Octavia thought she saw a yellow stallion with an orange and yellow mane smile and wink at her, before following the rest of the orchestra off the stage and through the crowd. She motioned with her head for Vinyl to follow her as she passed, and mouthed “To the room” at her, before exiting the room just behind Beauty Brass.

“So, was that your marefriend? The one in the glow-stick-dress?” the chipper, light-blue earth mare piped up.

“My marefriend? Why I never – I met her last night! She’s a hooligan, a ruffian! And I don’t even like mares!” Octavia’s face turned a deep shade of red as her mind created ideas of her and that rapscallion DJ together on a date, at a movie, in be- she shook her head, as if to clear the thoughts, her blush only deepening.

“It’s ok. Your secret is safe with me!” Beauty Brass chirped, turning down the hall, “Well, my room’s down this way. See you tomorrow, Tavi!”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow, Brass.” Octavia turned down the stairs to head to her own room. She arrived to find that Vinyl had somehow beaten her back.

“Miss Scratch. What the hell were you doing?”

“I was… cheering! Why shouldn’t I cheer for such a performance! You put your heart and soul into that, why shouldn’t I do that in my praise of it?”

“I… well… it’s just…! That was a classy event! You don’t cheer and whoop at fancy things!” Octavia sputtered, surprised at her inability to come up with a legitimate reply.

“Well, I certainly hope you realize you can cheer all you want at the club tonight. I hope you have as much fun as I did at your concert…” Vinyl was magically disrobing, disenchanting the glow sticks and teleporting the dress off of her body.

“Where did you get that dress, anyway, Miss Scratch?” Octavia inquired, “It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I got it from Rarity, as a thank-you present for overseeing the music at a few of her fashion shows. She’s so generous, but hey, I guess that’s to be expected. And why do you call me ‘Miss Scratch’ all the time? You don’t have to be so formal. You can call my Vinyl if you want.”

“Very well… Vinyl… wait, you met Rarity? The Element of Generosity?”

“You did too, didn’t you? Wasn’t she at that garden-party thing you played for that one time?”

“How did you know I played at a Canterlot Garden Party?”

Vinyl blushed. “Erm, lucky guess?” She rubbed a hoof against the back of her head, nervously, “Anyway... I need to go start getting ready for tonight. So yeah see you later bye!” Vinyl hastily bolted out the door, closing it behind her.

Well, that was odd… is she… stalking me? No, that’s absurd… Octavia rested her cello in the corner. Hmm, nine forty-eight? Vinyl said to show up at eleven… well, I guess I’ve got about an hour before I need to leave… Octavia decided the best way to spend the hour would be to take a shower and freshen up a little, and then settled down to read some of “Stallion in a Strange Land,” an older science-fiction novel authored by a pony with the name of Hooflein. The hour passed all too quickly, and she began her trip up to the club.

As she expected, upon entering the nightclub, she was met with an auditory assault that sounded like a… a washing machine having angry sex with a drum kit. She chuckled at the mental image, but only had a moment between beats to think clearly, before another wall of sound impacted her skull. She looked around for the source of the cranial torture, and unsurprisingly, located an ecstatic-looking Vinyl Scratch spinning records with her magic. She caught the DJ’s attention and gave a quick nod of acknowledgement before trotting to the bar. As she ordered her first drink of the night, the song changed – no longer was it the angry, violent, eardrum-violating “music” that ponies these days liked to call “dubstep,” but a softer, if equally fast, dance track that she thought she recognized as what was known as “trance.” If she was honest with herself, she liked this music. Then again, maybe the drink she’d ordered was stronger than she’d thought at first. Before she knew it, a white unicorn mare had seated herself on the barstool next to her.

“Hey there! I’m glad you came! You havin’ a good time?” The white unicorn was practically yelling in order to be heard over the blaring music.

“I’m not sure if I’d say I’m having fun, but it’s certainly less unpleasant than I was expecting,” Octavia replied, raising her voice enough to be heard.

“Well, thanks, I guess?” One of Vinyl’s eyebrows arched quizzically from behind her glasses, before continuing, “Well, I’ve got to get back to the turntables. You enjoy yourself, Miss Octavia, ya hear?” And with that, Vinyl was off and heading back to the DJ stand.

“That mare…” Octavia held her head in her hooves. Her drink had been stronger than she’d originally thought. Perhaps that was why she ordered another. And then a third. And possibly a fourth – she’d lost count at two. Before she knew what she was doing, she had been dragged onto the dance floor (or possibly had stumbled there of her own volition) and was, well, trying to dance, despite both her massive alcohol intake and her inexperience. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was Vinyl Scratch raising her glasses just a smidge and giving her an encouraging wink.

From her position in the DJ’s booth, Vinyl thought Octavia was having the time of her life – until she collapsed. Figuring that the obvious had happened, Vinyl nodded her head at her fellow DJ, indicating he should take over, before rushing down to the floor to pick up her roommate. She could smell the alcohol on the unconscious, “refined” cellist, and mentally commended her for having been standing that long after leaving the bar so totally inebriated. Magically slinging her over her back, Vinyl Scratch began making her way through the crowd and towards the exit of the club.

Vinyl had to admit she was a little disappointed the night had ended so early, but given how Octavia had been looking out for her when she was drunk, the DJ couldn’t help but feel obligated to return the favor. Stumbling a little on the stairs under the weight of an extra pony, Vinyl eventually made it back to her shared room, plopping the surprisingly heavy mare down on her bed before laying down in her own.

Well, look who’s a lightweight, Vinyl laughed to herself, well I suppose that’s not really fair. Even I would have passed out from all that, heh. With a final mental snicker, Vinyl Scratch found herself drifting to sleep at the earliest hour in months: 2:30 am.

Unfortunately, going to sleep earlier did not result in more sleep for the unicorn. She awoke with a start as a deep bass rumble rode through the ship. I’m five decks below the club… why can I hear the bass? Even I would never play it that loud… She jumped again as she felt another shudder roll through the ship. Wait… felt? Vinyl jumped out of her bed with a small splash and walked to the door, feeling as though the world were slanted. Why is there water on the fl… oh fuck, fuck, FUCK!!

“Octavia! Octavia, wake up! Octavia!” Vinyl Scratch was in full panic mode, violently shaking the passed-out cellist. When she didn’t wake up, Vinyl tentatively brought a hoof up and slapped Octavia across the face. Her efforts to wake the pony were met with a drunken snore of indifference. Vinyl rushed to the door and opened it, sticking her head out, glancing left and right down the hall, terrified. To one side, the deck went upwards, and to the other, a wall of water approaching ominously. Vinyl ran back to Octavia and threw her over her back with magic, and went to head out of the room. Two hooves out the door, she realized that if worst came to worst, carrying Octavia in the ocean would be almost impossible. Looking for anything that might float, Vinyl magically snagged the cello case from the corner, carrying it in her light blue aura as she trudged out into the hall. Normally, she would have headed left out of her room to get to the top deck, but that seemed out of the question at the moment. With a grunt, she turned right and trotted as fast as she could on the uphill grade that should have been a level hall. Another rumble took the ship, this time accompanied with the unpleasant groan of sheet metal warping and tearing.

Damn it… why of all times did this have to happen on the night my roommate is drunk off her ass… Vinyl approached the stairs, and feeling the water rushing past her feet, noticed that the source of the incoming flood seemed to be up the stairs. Groaning in frustration, Vinyl continued up the hallway.

No… the water… why is it getting faster? It seemed that the closer she got to the bow of the ship, the quantity of water flowing past her hooves was only increasing. She looked back over her shoulder, blowing Octavia’s tail out of the way, and noticed the water was rapidly approaching her. Another tremor – no, an explosion – rocked the ship, and Vinyl realized there was only one way out.

Oh please let this work… one hundred fifty meters up, seventy-five sideways, one hundred meters forward… account for a passenger and an item… please don’t be in water… Vinyl held her breath and concentrated, feeling the toll on her body already. She wasn’t good at teleporting, much less with a passenger and an item. Then a pulse of energy and a flash of blue – and she was in open air, several meters above the water. She fell, landing on the hard surface of the water, the impact jarring her back to her senses. She dropped the cello case, and, remarkably, it was floating on the surface. With her last remaining strength, she moved Octavia on top of the case and dragged herself up next to her.

Where are the lifeboats? Why are there no lifeboats…? Why… lifeboats…

She slipped into unconsciousness.

Chapter II

Octavia awoke, surprised, confused, and with a pounding headache. It wasn’t the headache she was surprised and confused about, though – she vaguely remembered going to a club and drinking more alcohol than was necessary, and probably more than was healthy. What was confusing her was why she could see the sky, and why her bed felt so… sandy?

She reached a hoof over to grab at her alarm clock, but instead found the warm, furry body of Vinyl Scratch. Holy Celestia, how drunk was I last night?

“Miss Scratch.”

No response.

Octavia smashed her hoof down on the sleeping Unicorn mare.

“Miss Scratch!”

No response.

Octavia repeated the endeavor, only to be met with a violent fit of coughing and sputtering, and a face-full of regurgitated… salt water.

Octavia slowly began to piece together where she was, and what that implied.

Sand… sky… on a beach… didn’t get here consciously… Miss Scratch is practically drowned… oh my Celestia. There must have been an accident. But why are we not in a lifeboat? Why are we just on a beach? Why are Vinyl and I the only ponies here? Why-

“Octavia! Oh thank Celestia you’re ok!” Vinyl coughed a couple more times and threw herself at the cellist, hugging her perhaps a little longer and a little tighter than Octavia would have deemed appropriate.

“I’m glad I’m ok too… but… Miss Scratch,” Octavia wedged her forelegs between herself and the unicorn, prying free, “Would you be so kind as to explain where the hell we are and what the hell we’re doing here?”

“Well,” Vinyl began, coughing again, “I can't tell you where we are. I got you off the ship and then passed out in the water. Honestly, I’m shocked I didn’t drown. As for what we’re doing here… I only kind of know. After you passed out drunk at the club, I brought you back to our room and went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night, hearing this super-loud bass, thinking someone was partying without me. When I got out of bed, I realized the floor wasn’t level and that there was water covering it. I panicked. I grabbed you and your cello, and tried to get off the ship, but the water was coming from above us. I prayed and guessed, and teleported us out of the ship. The last thing I remember was… oh my Celestia, Octavia, there were no lifeboats. None. Not one in the water, but the ship was going down. Octavia, I think… I think…” Tears began flowing from behind the purple glasses, Vinyl’s body contorting in sobs. Octavia took a moment to make the same connections, before letting out a gasp, her eyes shrinking to mere pinheads.

“Vinyl,” she said, forgetting formality entirely, “You mean to say… you think everypony on board the Harmonious… drowned? They’re all… dead?” Octavia felt awful. Not for the apparent deaths of nearly thirteen hundred ponies, but for lack of feelings – her mind had simply shut down. She did not feel. She did not think. She could hardly breathe without focusing every conscious, functioning mental faculty she had on doing just that. Slowly, her brain turned back on, and her ragged, unsteady breathing turned into a wail of anguish. She sat there on the beach, crying, sobbing, wailing, mourning, with the DJ for what felt like an incalculable amount of time. Her parents, Beauty Brass, her conductor, that kind yellow stallion in the audience… all of them, gone. Octavia would have been content to sit there and waste away, if not for the muffled thud of a pony crashing into the sand that shook her back to reality. She looked up, seeing a frantic yellow Pegasus mare with a fiery mane and hollow, horrified eyes. Octavia had just opened her mouth to speak when the mare cut her off.

“Have you seen him? Have you seen him? I can’t find him, I need to tell him! I need to tell him I love him! Have you seen him? Anywhere? Have you found him? Tell me where he is! I need to tell him I love him!”

The Pegasus had clearly gone mad with grief, but both Octavia and Vinyl Scratch were so close to doing the same that neither pony could articulate a reply. Her wings were ragged and her mane was disheveled, it seemed as though she’d been flying since the accident.

“You haven’t seen him? I have to find him! I need to tell him I love him!” The Pegasus turned back to face the ocean and took off, still raving about “needing to find him.” Almost as if in slow motion, Octavia raised a hoof, several minutes after the crazed mare had left, and mouthed the word “Wait.” But it was far too late – the fire-maned mare had been gone for nearly half an hour by the time Octavia completed her vain action.

“H-hey, Oc-octavia…” Vinyl Scratch managed to choke out, “I think… I think we should try to find somewhere to sleep… it’s… the sun is setting… come on, let’s see if we can find some shelter.”

Octavia said nothing, but nodded her head, sniffling as the last of her tears fell on the sand. She stood and moped towards Vinyl Scratch, still unable to bring out any words. Vinyl looked around, seeing nothing on the beach that could be used as a suitable place to spend the night. With a reluctant glance, she looked towards the tropical forest that marked the end of the beach and the start of the rest of the island.

“Come on, Octavia, maybe we can find a cave or something… and we can’t see in the dark. Oh, I know. I could use an illumination spell…” Vinyl scrunched up her face in concentration, holding her breath and focusing, before exhaling, panting, as nothing happened.

“I… I can't use magic…? Wha… why…” Vinyl’s heart sank. Without magic, what was she? An Earth Pony. Her livelihood depended on her Unicorn magic. Sure, she could scratch by hoof, but she relied entirely on her magic for changing records and mixing audio on the fly. As a slightly more relevant thought entered her mind, she realized this meant no illumination spells, no heat spells, no food spells.

“Vinyl? What’s wrong?” Octavia formed her first real words since the morning.

“I… I can’t use my magic. There’s just nothing there when I try to access it. Maybe I used it up teleporting us off the ship, or maybe it has something to do with having almost drowned… oh, I don’t know…” Vinyl moped, voice quivering as she tried to hold back more tears.

“Hey, come on,” Octavia said, encouragingly, forcing a weak smile to her face, “At least we’re alive. We can figure out why your magic doesn’t work later. Let’s just find a cave or something.”

The pair trotted slowly through the forest, a dull roar of birds and other animals growing louder by the minute as the last dregs of daylight drained from the sky. Fortunately, they were able to find a small cave, which, after some tentative exploration, they determined was uninhabited and would provide enough shelter for the night. After settling down at opposite ends of the miniature cavern, Octavia began to speak.

“Miss Scratch… I’ve got a couple questions for you…”

“Okay, fire away, I guess,” Vinyl nervously replied

“Well, first off, where’s my cello? You said you brought it with you, but it was nowhere to be found on the beach… and why did you bring it in the first place?”

“To be honest, I figured it could be used to keep your passed-out flank out of the water so you wouldn’t drown. I guess it worked, since we’re both here. We must have floated to this place on it, and it must have washed back out to sea afterwards. I’m sorry, Octavia, I know how much it meant to you.”

“No, it’s fine… I mean, I’m sad it’s gone, but I’d rather lose my cello than my life. Secondly, then, why did you risk yourself to save me? It must have been difficult dragging an unconscious mare through the bowels of a sinking cruise liner.”

Vinyl blushed a little, thankful the darkness hid her face. “Umm, well, you see… like you said, we might not be friends but I don’t want to see you hurt,” she hastily explained.

Octavia was surprised at the unicorn’s response. It seemed nervous, rushed, almost like… a lie. She was about to call the DJ on it, when she began to speak again.

“Say, Octavia… it’s probably going to get pretty cold overnight, and since I can’t do any heating spells, do you think we should… umm…” she trailed off, once again grateful for the darkness.

“Sleep together?” Octavia supplemented, a genuine smile, even if it barely classified as that, breaching her face for the first time that day.

“Well yeah, but… wait, no not like that!” Vinyl sputtered through a wave of embarrassment.

“I know what you meant. Here, come on over. Just don’t get any funny ideas.”

Vinyl slowly walked over to her ex-roommate, now-cavemate, and settled down behind her, subconsciously draping a hoof over her shoulder, tucking Octavia’s body against her own. It was now Octavia’s turn to be thankful to the night, as her face could have rivaled the Element of Honesty’s brother in terms of redness. In truth, though, she welcomed the physical contact – Vinyl’s warm, soft body felt oddly comforting, strangely safe, almost as though in a mother’s embrace. She smiled, and let sleep take her.

Vinyl took a little longer to drift to sleep, relishing in the calm, rhythmic feeling of Octavia’s slow, steady breaths, secretly wishing for the moment to never end. Alas, it had to, and she fell asleep shortly afterwards.

***

Morning came all too soon for the exhausted mares. Sunlight seeped into the cave, waking Octavia first. She was initially surprised at how soft and fuzzy the cave felt, before realizing that at some point in the night, Vinyl Scratch had somehow gotten herself underneath the cellist. Winning a mental battle to extricate herself from the (admittedly, extremely comfortable) position that was more suited to lovers than stranded roommates, she rose to her hooves and tried in vain to get her mane to cooperate. Losing the war with her hair, she decided to try to find a pond, or lake, or something where she could clean up a little before heading to the beach to await rescue. She walked out of the cave and into the woods.

Several minutes passed before the lack of the warmth of another body penetrated the subconscious of the snoozing unicorn. Grumbling and snorting as she woke up, two thoughts invaded her mind. The first was the solemn realization that it hadn’t been a dream. The second was the fear induced by the lack of Octavia.

“Octavia?” Vinyl called out, still mostly asleep. “Octavia! Octavia, where are you?” Vinyl’s voice was rapidly rising from a groggy curiosity to a terrified wail.

“Octavia? Octavia!” Vinyl was on her hooves now, galloping out of the cave, screaming, “Where are you? Octavia! Where did you go?”

Octavia had found a small lake, and was busy trying her best to clean her mane and coat despite her lack of soap. When the gray mare heard the panicked shrieking emanating from the woods, and hesitantly called back, “Miss Scratch? What’s wrong?”

A white and blue blur erupted from the tree line and charged into the lake before wrapping itself tightly around the confused gray mare. Unlike on the beach yesterday, this time Octavia’s forelegs were trapped and she was powerless to resist yet another slightly-too-long hug.

“Miss Scratch, I’m bat-”

“Where did you go? Why did you leave? I thought you were gone! I was afraid you had died!” Vinyl was distraught, openly weeping into Octavia’s chest.

“Miss Scratch, I’m fine… why would you think I was dead? I’m just trying to wash off… even if we’re on an island in the middle of nowhere, I intend to perform something that vaguely resembles bathing each day, and I would appreciate it if you did as well. Now, if you wouldn’t mind… can I finish my… well, I can’t honestly call it a bath. My wash? Yes, would you mind removing yourself so I can finish my wash?” Vinyl reluctantly let go and began wading back to the shore.

“Hey, Octavia… I think I’ll head down to the beach. You know, see if there’s any ships in looking for...” a lump formed in her throat. She couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence. All the same, Octavia knew what she meant, and nodded her consent for Vinyl’s intentions.

As she trudged back in the direction she thought was towards the beach, Vinyl had some time to herself to think.

Why did I react like that? What on earth was I thinking? I mean… I… Octavia probably thinks I’m a total creep now. I acted like a mother who’d lost her foal. Even still, despite how I feel, even if I didn’t feel that way… losing my only companion right now would be awful. Under any other circumstances, being on an island alone with this mare would be great, but this… I don’t even want to think about it.

Despite her best efforts, she did think about it, though thankfully the change in texture under her hooves snapped her out of her thoughts as she noticed she had made it to the beach. As she scanned the horizons, hoping to see… anything, really, she noticed a black object on the water’s edge. Trotting down the length of the beach, she broke into a light jog, and then a full gallop as she realized what it was. Approaching the object, Vinyl tried to use her magic to pick it up, and for the second time in as many days found herself unable to conjure that familiar light blue aura that would have allowed her to levitate the case. Giving a frustrated sigh, Vinyl bent down and grabbed the handle on the side of the case with her teeth and slung it over her back, a strap magically winding it’s way under her stomach to keep the case from sliding off.

Must be a permanent enchantment, she thought, so why does this still work but my magic doesn’t? Again resolving to figure it out later, Vinyl began a happy trot back in what she thought was the direction of the cave.

As her luck would have it, she had not gone in the direction of the cave. Looking around her, all she saw were patterns of trees and plants even less familiar than those she thought she would have recognized from the trip down to the beach. Thinking better of starting to scream Octavia’s name again, Vinyl thought that perhaps the other mare would have thought to go down to the shoreline after she finished washing. Turning on her heels, Vinyl Scratch proceeded to trot as calmly as she could back in the direction she came. Eventually finding the sandy shoreline once again, she looked out over the ocean. Come to think of it… this is a rather beautiful place, despite the circumstances. Not that I’d want to stay here… no, goodness no, but I could see this being a popular resort island, maybe.

Again, forcing herself to remain as calm as possible, she strode to the waterline and sat down, staring blankly over the seemingly endless blue waves. It’s a big ship. It’s a fancy ship. It’s an important ship. Surely there are ponies looking for it now. But… Vinyl’s mind suddenly remembered a marine biology class from her last year of high school. Ocean surface currents can be surprisingly strong, reaching velocities of up to four meters per second, her teacher had said. Doing some quick math in her head, Vinyl made a horrifying realization – she and Octavia were stranded, possibly dozens of kilometers away from where the ship had actually gone down. They might not be anywhere near where the search parties would be. Trying desperately to force the thought from her mind, Vinyl Scratch ended up staring out over the ocean, searching for any telltale signs of another ship, or a Pegasus even, something to hint that rescue may be coming. Some time passed like this, simply staring out, eyes only partially focused, before a gasp woke Vinyl from her trance.

“Hey Vinyl, I found some stuff we can ea- Oh, by Celestia, is that… is that my cello? Miss Scratch, wherever did you find it? I thought you said it had washed out to sea?”

“Huh? What time is it?” Vinyl chastised herself for not having the scruples to see neither pony wore a watch, before looking into the sky, seeing the sun practically at the horizon now. How long have I been sitting here? She thought, before continuing out loud, “Oh, yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s your cello. And I had only guessed that your cello had floated off, like I said the last I saw of it we were in the middle of the ocean. But yeah, you wanna see if it’s ok?” Vinyl paused for a second, thinking over what Octavia had just said. “Wait a minute, how did you know what you found was safe to eat?”

“I was in Filly Scouts when I was younger. We read all about what kind of plants and berries are safe to eat if we ever got lost in the woods. I guess this counts,” Octavia held a hoof behind her head, blushing slightly and chuckling, “As for my cello, well, it is magically sealed from water, but seeing as something happened that made it so you can’t use magic,” Vinyl shot her an annoyed look, “I mean no offense by that, I simply meant to say if you, an actual unicorn, can’t use your magic, then it’s probable that the seal has broken.”

Vinyl made a noise of understanding, before slipping the case off her back and plopping it down unceremoniously on the beach.

“Be careful with that! It’s worth thousands of bits!” Octavia sputtered, terrified.

“Come off it, Octy. It’s probably waterlogged anyway.”

“What did you just call me?”

Despite being white already, Vinyl paled.

“Umm… I called you… uh…” she stammered, unable to come up with an excuse. Shit, how’d I let that slip out? Now she’s going to be angry an- why’s she crying?

“Octavia, what’s wrong? Are you ok?”

“It… it’s just…” her tears were rapidly increasing from just a trickle and some sniffles to open sobbing, before collapsing onto the beach in a wailing heap, leaving Vinyl thoroughly confused.

“Octavia, are you… what’s the matter?”

“My… my p…” she trailed off, body wracked with sobs.

“Huh?” Vinyl inquired, leaning in closer to the mare, wrapping a hoof around her shoulder. “Come on, tell me what’s wrong.”

Despite her gruff exterior, and her own continuous sobbing, Octavia noticed the sincerity in Vinyl’s words and her effort to make her feel better. It would prove to be a fruitless effort soon enough, though. After crying for several more minutes, she finally was able to speak, if only momentarily before the tears returned.

“Vinyl… my… the only ponies that ever called me Octy… were my parents… and they…” she choked again, her voice catching on the enormous lump in her throat, before finishing, much quieter than before, “they were on that ship.”

Vinyl’s grip on Octavia loosened momentarily as she sat back in stunned shock, unable to come up with anything at all to reply to what she had just heard. Then she tightened her grip, pulling Octavia into a tighter hug than ever before, stroking a hoof through her mane as the distraught mare let it all out.

“Why? Why! They weren’t supposed to be on that ship! Why did they have to die?” Octavia practically screamed, “Why couldn’t it have been me? Or why couldn’t I be with them? Why did they have to die?” Vinyl wanted to soothe her, to tell her it would be ok, but she wouldn’t lie. Suddenly, Octavia’s voice shifted from sorrow to anger.

“Why did you save me? Why didn’t you save them? Or save six or seven other ponies who you wouldn’t have had to haul through the ship over your back? Why not that kind yellow stallion? Why me? What gives you the right to decide whose life is worth saving? What makes you so special? What makes you so much… god damned better than everyone else? What gives you the right…” Octavia felt her anger ebbing, and despite how much she wanted somepony to blame, she couldn’t focus anger on Vinyl. There has to be a reason… somewhere, somepony has a reason I’m alive… She didn’t want to accept it. She didn’t want to hear, or deal with, anything. She just wanted to cry, into the chest of this mare she hardly knew, yet who had risked her own life to save her wretchedly intoxicated hide from a sinking cruise liner. Why?

“Because I-” Vinyl cut herself off. Octavia looked up at the white unicorn, eyes wide, bloodshot, and shrunken down to pins. I can’t say it, not yet.

Was she about to say…? No, that would be ridiculous.

The two sat for a while in the fading light. Vinyl held Octavia until she’d finished crying, which was a good while after sun down, and they began to head back to the cave. Once they made it back, Vinyl was surprised at the substantial amount of supposedly safe food Octavia had gathered. A decently sized pile of berries and leaves sat on a rock Octavia must have found and rolled or pushed into the cave, with two smaller rocks that almost looked like they represented… chairs? It almost looked like an attempt to turn the cave into a house. Vinyl tried and failed to suppress a light snicker at the setup, getting an annoyed look from Octavia. She trotted over to the table and took a berry in her hoof.

“You’re sure this is safe to eat?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. I can't guarantee tas-” Octavia didn’t get to finish her warning before Vinyl had spit the berry out again and tried to clean her tongue off with her hoof. It was Octavia’s turn to fail to suppress a laugh, getting awarded with an eye-roll from Vinyl.

“This stuff tastes like sh… manure,” Vinyl self-censored for reasons she couldn’t fully explain, “Why did you bother picking stuff that tastes so bad?”

“Because food that tastes awful is better than no food at all.”

“Debatable.”

Octavia rolled her eyes, and picked up a hooffull of berries herself, putting them into her mouth and forcing herself not to gag them out, chewing just enough so that she wouldn’t choke as she swallowed them, eager to get them out of her mouth, but not willing to admit defeat in front of her DJ companion. Grimacing and taking another couple berries, she forced them down as well. She glanced up as Vinyl snorted.

“You make… the funniest faces sometimes,” she stammered out between fits of giggles. Octavia tried to restrain herself, but fell into a fit of laughter as well, knowing full well her face had been contorted into some ridiculous expression to force down the disgusting food. Not to be outdone, Vinyl grabbed some of the leaves and shoved them into her mouth, before letting out a gasp.

“Oh my Celestia, Octavia… these leaves are delicious! What are they?” Vinyl asked, eyes wide, giving a genuine smile.

“I don’t know, but I do remember being taught that they were tasty when I was younger.”

“Good memory,” Vinyl managed to mutter between mouthfuls of the delectable greens. Octavia tentatively put a small bite in her mouth, eyes widening in surprise at just how good the food tasted. Maybe it was because she hadn’t eaten in more than a day and the leaves were just pretty good, but Octavia was convinced that they really were simply the most delicious leaves she’d ever eaten. The pair of ponies attacked the pile of food with a vigor that would have been deemed improper in the situations Octavia normally dined under, but she didn’t care, and Vinyl hardly changed at all. After finishing the leaves, and forcing down some of the berries as well, Octavia had led Vinyl to the lake for something to drink, and then back to the cave where they settled in for the night. Curling up together again, Octavia began to speak just before Vinyl fell asleep.

“Vinyl?”

“… yeah?”

“I’m sorry about earlier. I shouldn’t be angry with you. I should be thanking you. You saved my life, and I threw that back at you. You didn’t deserve that.”

“Eh, it’s alright. What are friends for, anyways?” Octavia’s eyes widened in shock as Vinyl finished the question.

“You consider us… friends?”

“Well, I guess. I certainly would like to be if we’re stuck on this island together. Would kinda suck if we weren’t friends, you know?”

For the second time today, Octavia felt tears forming in her eyes.

“Thank you, Vinyl… thank you so much.”

“Hey, don’t mention it.”

“Vinyl?”

“Hmm?”

“You can call me ‘Tavi’ if you want.”

Vinyl snickered.

“Alright. Goodnight, Tavi.”

“Goodnight, Vinyl.”

***

Vinyl woke with a start. It was still the middle of the night, but the moon cast a surprising amount of light on the ground at the mouth of the cave. She heard a soft whimpering, and sat up. Still tucked against one another, Octavia was crying in her sleep, softly calling out a name every couple of seconds. Trying not to wake her, Vinyl rolled Octavia over so she was facing her, and pulled her into a hug.

“It’s ok, Tavi… I won’t let you go. I won’t ever let you go.”

Chapter III

Once again, Octavia woke up and found herself intertwined in Vinyl Scratch’s legs, this time unable to get up without waking her. As she stood up, the DJ’s eyes fluttered open for a moment before retrieving her glasses and placing them on her face and yawning.

“Good morning, Tavi,” she slurred a bit, still just barely awake, “Sleep well?”

“I… well…” Octavia colored slightly, “Yes, thanks to you.”

Even with the glasses on, Octavia noticed one of Vinyl’s eyebrows arch, and decided to explain further.

“I was having this nightmare… I was back on the ship, but it was already sunken. There were these white shapes. I couldn’t tell what they were at first, but then they got closer,” Octavia paused a moment, forcing down the growing lump in her throat, “They were ghosts, Vinyl. Ghosts of my parents, Beauty Brass, that yellow Pegasus yesterday, that stallion at the concert… ghosts of ponies I’d never seen before. Hundreds of them, everywhere, underwater, in the ship. Then, my parents came up to me… and started dragging me down, further underwater. I was drowning. And then… you came. You pulled me away from them,” Octavia paused and chuckled a moment, “It’s kind of funny, I thought you were a ghost at first, being so white and all,” and for some reason the thought of you dead scared me the most, she added silently, “But then you…” she trailed off, and Vinyl raised an eyebrow, “I knew it was you. That it was really you. You told me you’d never let me go.” Vinyl colored noticeably, and quickly turned around and marched out of the cave.

“Well I’m glad you’re alright, Tavi. Why don’t we head over to that lake and wash up, then go to the beach again?” Vinyl was talking significantly louder than was necessary, and the sudden change of topic confused Octavia, but she grunted her consent and followed the unicorn mare. Vinyl waded down into the pool, relishing in the cool water coming up to her neck. Without anything resembling a washcloth or bar of soap, the best she could do to wash herself was simply scrub her hooves all over her body, hoping for the best with getting the dirt off. She brought her head beneath the water for a moment, shaking it violently and running her hooves through it in an attempt to clear the worst of the knots. As she brought her head above the water again, it fell in thick, wet ropes around her ears and down over her shoulders, revealing her fuzzy mane to be substantially longer than it appeared when dry.

“Vinyl! Your mane is so… well, it’s very pretty. I never knew it was so long. Why don’t you ever wear it down? I’ve always wanted a long mane, but I’ve never been able to get it to cooperate once it gets much longer than it is now,” Octavia asked, truly captivated by the long strands of electric blue hair, following it's path down Vinyl’s head, shoulders, and body. She caught herself following the other curves of Vinyl’s body with her eyes before averting them, and ducked her own head under the water momentarily, before resurfacing.

It was Vinyl’s turn to gawk, now – unlike her own mane, which was knotted and rough, Octavia’s well-kept mane hung from her head in arrow-straight sheets, not clinging to her body at all but instead falling neatly away from her. While it didn’t have the same stunning effect that Vinyl’s own wet mane did, she envied the cellist’s easily tamable mane.

“Honestly, Tavi? I never wear it down because I can’t ever get it to cooperate. So I just kinda shake it dry, like this,” Vinyl shook her head violently, spraying water all over Octavia, “It’s much easier.”

Octavia looked up, with a mischievous glint in her eyes. She rolled her neck around once, whipping her soaking hair into a straight line, launching what Vinyl could only describe as a bolt of water, right at her head. The water impacted her head at the base of her horn. In a flash, an idea entered the unicorn’s head. She clutched at her horn, groaning in pain and falling over into the water.

“Oh my Celestia, Vinyl, are you ok?” Octavia rushed over to her friend, expecting to have to pick her up out of the water. Instead, she received a forceful stream of water to the face. Surprised and confused, Octavia recoiled, eyes and mouth wide as Vinyl stood back up, rolling with laughter.

“Oh, Tavi, you should see your face, it’s priceless.”

“How did you… can you use magic again?”

“What? No, I did this!” Vinyl bent her neck down and sucked some water into her mouth, lifting her head again and spitting it back at Octavia.

“That’s… disgusting!” Octavia drew back, pumping her forelegs in displeasure, kicking up a surprisingly significant volume of water right at Vinyl Scratch. The force of the torrent of water actually knocked Vinyl off her hooves this time, and she replied in kind by kicked her hooves out as she fell, splashing a substantial amount of water towards Octavia. When the gray mare had finally gotten the water out of her eyes, she gave Vinyl a look of pure anger and leapt at her. Vinyl did the only logical thing – she turned tail and ran towards the shore. Unfortunately for her, Octavia seemed to be more agile in the water, and she quickly caught up to and tripped Vinyl. Octavia hadn't really thought the action through, however, and Vinyl’s tail wrapped around her legs, tripping her up as well. The pair tumbled end over end before landing half in the water, with Octavia on her back and Vinyl straddling her, both panting heavily and soaking wet. They were staring at each other, faces only a hoofsbreadth apart.

Kiss her.

The thought blasted into the front of Octavia’s mind completely unbidden. It took serious effort to avoid following through on the thought, and all of her will to force the thought from her mind. She hadn’t been able to do it fast enough, though – she felt an embarrassing burn in her cheeks and on the tips of her ears and her face colored deeply. Unbeknownst to Octavia, though, Vinyl Scratch had been fighting the same mental battle, and was losing. Vinyl’s face was turning a deep red and her breathing was becoming heavier despite their inactivity.

“Vinyl?” The unicorn was snapped out of her thoughts, reality destroying the desire to physically confess to the beautiful musician beneath her.

“Vinyl, would you mind getting off me?”

“Oh, uhh, yeah. Sure.” Vinyl’s voice trembled slightly as the short, broken sentences forced their way out of her mouth as she stood up and took a few steps away from Octavia.

“Shall we… shall we head down to the beach, now?”

“Yeah, I think we should.”

They walked through the forest, an unpleasant silence between them. Vinyl wanted to break the silence, to just begin a casual conversation, anything to get rid of the tension. Octavia, on the other hoof, was glad to have some time alone to think, despite the awkwardness.

Where did that thought come from? Am I a fillyfooler? No, I can’t be, can I? I’ve never had a marefriend before! I mean, I’ve had coltfri… no, no I haven’t. I’ve had crushes on colts, haven't I? Octavia desperately tried to recall somepony, anypony she’d felt romantic interest towards. Much to her dismay, she couldn’t. But I can’t be a fillyfooler… that’s just absurd. Isn’t it?

But what would be so absurd about it? A second voice, still her own, but with different ideas, sprang into her head.

It’s… it’s unnatural! Besides, we wouldn’t be able to have any foals!

Unnatural? Feelings are feelings, love is love – the gender of the subject of your heart’s desire is irrelevant. And having foals? Getting a little ahead of ourselves, aren’t we?

Octavia colored externally as she realized her mind was right – somewhere her mind had spawned a fantasy of living with, perhaps even being married to, the white unicorn who had saved her life. Yes, saved my life, that’s where these thoughts are coming from. It’s only natural that I’d feel gratitude towards the pony that saved me. It must be the trauma of the accident, my mind is misconstruing those feelings of gratitude as feelings of attraction. Yes, that must be it. Octavia looked over at Vinyl – the white unicorn was rather pretty, now that she thought of it. No, mind, damn it! Stop thinking like that! But what if…

You’ll never know if you don’t try. As much as she hated to admit it, her mind was right.

“Vinyl, I thi-”

“Well, here’s the beach,” Vinyl interrupted, pointing out the obvious – the pair had indeed arrived at the beach. “Were you saying something, Tavi?”

“Oh, no, it’s… it’s nothing.”

Vinyl raised an eyebrow questioningly, but decided to drop it.

“Hey, Tavi, why don’t we look for some rocks, or logs or something, see if we can spell out ‘Help’ or ‘SOS’ on the beach or something. I’ll head that way,” she gestured with her head down the beach one way, “and you can head the other way, and check around the corner for anything we can use. Just holler if you need help with anything.”

“Ok, sure,” Octavia replied. This seems like a shockingly reasonable plan.

“Alright then, I’ll be just down the beach if you need me,” Vinyl stated, turning and starting to walk away. Octavia stared for just a second, watching Vinyl’s hips and tail sway from side to side as she sauntered away. No, damn it! I’ll talk to her about it, or something, but not right now! … Well, I should go looking for rocks and stuff. Octavia unglued her eyes from Vinyl’s rear and turned to walk away. Just a few meters down the beach, it bent sharply, hiding the remainder of the sandy shore from view. She tried her hardest not to think about Vinyl Scratch, but found her mind dominated by the white mare anyway. Focusing intently on the ground, “searching” for rocks, or anything, really, she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going and wasn’t really registering anything she was seeing.

When she tripped, she let out a small yelp of surprise more than pain or fear, and looked back to see what it was she’d tripped on.

Vinyl heard the scream and immediately left the group of medium-sized rocks she was rolling towards the part of the beach they’d washed up on and broke into a full gallop. Tearing down the beach and rounding the corner, Vinyl realized the scream had devolved into a wail, with only despairing sobs breaking the continuous cry. She could see Octavia hunched over an inert blue and brown form that vaguely resembled a…

Oh, no.

Vinyl slowed to a trot, before reaching a hoof out and placing it softly on Octavia’s back.

“Tavi, are you… no, that’s an idiotic question. Of course you’re not ok. Can I do anything to make you feel better?”

Octavia merely turned around and latched onto Vinyl Scratch, burying her face in her chest, wrapping her forelegs around Vinyl and sobbing. A few words came to Vinyl’s mind, but she decided the best thing she could say was nothing at all. She reached down and returned Octavia’s embrace, prepared for another hour or two of silent comforting. Instead of remaining with her face pressed tightly to Vinyl’s chest, she lifted it and looked up, seeing the white unicorn smiling benevolently at her.

Kiss her.

Again, the thought came to her mind entirely unbidden, only this time she didn’t have the mental faculties to resist. She pressed her head up, lightly touching her lips to Vinyl’s.

Vinyl couldn’t move. The mare of her dreams was kissing her. But this wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. She wasn’t thinking clearly. It was Octavia kissing her, physically, but not mentally. The gray mare in her arms was an emotional train wreck at the moment, not the heavily romanced cellist Vinyl had secretly dreamed she would be moments before their first kiss. Frantically trying to sort out what had just happened, Vinyl realized she had been returning the kiss for just a moment, before pulling her head away.

“Octavia… I… we can talk about this later. Or preferably, we’ll never speak of it again. I care for you, deeply, but as a friend,” the DJ grimaced internally at the lie, “You’re distraught. Come on,” Vinyl picked herself up, and looked over to the body in the sand. “This is your friend… Beauty Brass, right? She was in your orchestra. We can’t leave her here.”

Octavia had managed to calm down enough to form sentences.

“How can you be… so… so nonchalant about this? This is a dead pony. She was my best friend. How can you be so cold? How can you just… not care?” Octavia’s eyes burned with hatred, staring at the white unicorn she’d tried to kiss just moments before.

“I do care, Tavi. I’m just trying to think about something, anything but the reality of what is going on. Because if I was thinking about it as much as you are, we’d both be quivering wrecks, unable to move, think, or live,” Vinyl stated coldly, “And I don’t know about you sometimes, but I want to live. Now, seeing as this mare was a nice enough pony to be given the title of ‘best friend’ from someone as classy, and wonderful, and talented and beautiful as you are… she deserves to be… taken care of. We can’t leave her like this.” Vinyl grimaced, bent down, and pulled Beauty Brass’ corpse over her back.

Octavia’s eyes softened in recognition, and hung her head as regret pooled in her heart, realizing just how foolish she’d been. Then something Vinyl said clicked.

“Do you really think I’m beautiful?” Octavia asked quietly, still staring at the ground.

Vinyl Scratch froze. She hadn’t noticed she’d said that, and she certainly hadn’t meant to.

“Yes, I do think you’re beautiful. But let’s discuss this later. We have… we have a grave to dig.” Vinyl cringed slightly; that had come out a lot harsher than she’d meant for it to.

Another tense silence surrounded the two mares as they walked through the woods, looking for a suitable patch of ground to dig up. Eventually finding a small clearing in the forest, Vinyl gently slid Beauty Brass off her back and began to draw a large rectangle in the ground, big enough to fit a pony inside. Finishing the outline, Vinyl began digging at the ground with a hoof, the soft, loamy soil coming up with relative ease. After having made a little progress, Vinyl looked up and noticed that Octavia wasn’t helping. She opened her mouth to chastise her, then closed it again as she realized she was crying again. Vinyl stopped digging and walked over to her, sat down on her haunches, and wrapped a foreleg around her shoulder.

“Promise you won’t try to kiss me again?” Octavia nodded weakly. Vinyl paused a moment before continuing, “… how old was she?”

Octavia sniffled a couple times before responding. “She was… she was nineteen. A brilliant rising star, and truly an amazing sousaphone player for her age. It’s… why couldn’t she have lived, and not me?” Octavia looked up at Vinyl, tears still flowing from her eyes. “I’ve pretty much come as far as I’ll ever go. Beauty, though? She had such a career in front of her…”

“Hey, we talked about this, remember? We’re here, and we can’t go back on that. Look, there’s nothing that I want more than to tell you ‘It’ll all be ok.’ And I can tell you that. But things are going to be unpleasant until they get better. It might be a long time before they get better. But until they do, I’ll be here for you, helping you as much as I can. What are friends for? Now come on, help me out a little. The sooner we finish this, the less time we have to be here dealing with the unpleasantness of the present.”

“Alright… alright. Let’s… yeah. And Vinyl? About earlier, I’m so sorry…” Octavia said, weakly, before standing up.

“Don’t mention it. Emotions get the best of us sometimes,” Vinyl replied, straining to keep a placated smile on her face.

The two set about digging. It took several hours at least before they had excavated enough dirt by hoof to lower the cyan mare as smoothly as possible into her grave. The sun was setting by the time they were piling the dirt back over Beauty Brass’ body. As Vinyl finished smoothing the dirt down, Octavia started to tear up again.

“Do you want to say anything, Tavi?”

Octavia shook her head in response, before saying, “There’s nothing I could say that would do justice to her loss. She was taken far too soon. That’s… that’s all there is….” Tears began to flow again.

“Tavi… Tavi… don’t cry. It’s late, let’s go get some rest.” Vinyl put a foreleg over the cellist’s shoulders and began to lead her back to the cave. After a silent, meager, and quick meal of berries and leaves, they curled up once again and fell asleep.

***

For the second night in a row, Vinyl Scratch awoke with a start at an indeterminable hour. The moon was high and provided a surprising amount of light, enough for objects to cast rather distinct shadows, even. Luna must have some reason to be happy tonight… the moon’s always brighter when she’s happy. Good for her.

She could feel that Octavia was still asleep, the regularity of her breathing reassuring the tense unicorn. However, that moment of calm didn’t last very long – a low growl pervaded the cave, causing her to sit bolt upright, eyes searching fearfully for the source of the sound. Her eyes finally came to rest on a large body that occupied the mouth of the cave. She couldn’t make out details, due to the light source being behind the creature, but she didn’t need to – the segmented tail, dragon-like wings, and lioneqsue mane. There was no doubt in Vinyl Scratch’s mind that this was a Manticore, a creature she had been warned of since her early days. Gently placing a hoof over Octavia’s mouth to stifle any yelps she might make as she shook her awake. Thankfully she woke quietly, but Vinyl was rewarded with an angry stare from the mare’s purple eyes.

“Mmph?!”

“Octavia…” Vinyl hissed, “Manticore. Quiet.”

“MMMPHMMHH?!?!” The gray earth mare’s eyes widened in fear as she tried to let out a terrified yell, drawing the attention of the beast. It roared, causing both ponies to jump to their hooves in fright, Vinyl taking up a defensive posture, placing herself between Octavia and the Manticore.

“Octavia. I’m going to ask you to trust me. Run. Run and don’t look back.”

“Vinyl, I could never leave you here alone with… that! You don’t even have your magic!”

“I have a horn. That’s something. It’s better than what you can do. So Octavia, please just RUN!” Anger was beginning to rise in Vinyl’s voice, the frustrated and terrified mare losing her patience with her stubborn friend. In the course of their argument, the beast had come closer, and had one massive paw raised in the air. Vinyl noticed this far too late to do anything but watch in horror; the world seemed to go into slow motion as she was pushed aside, Octavia now occupying the space she had just been in.

“VINYL LOOK OU-”

Octavia’s cry was cut short with a sickening crack as the beast’s paw smashed into her side and his claws dug across her flank. The small mare was lifted off the ground by the force of the blow, soaring through the air and slamming into the wall of the cave, her spine bent back at a terrifyingly unnatural angle. She could hear screaming and saw a flash of orange, her eyes slowly closing, and lost consciousness. The last thing she saw was what she hoped was Vinyl Scratch rushing over to her.

Chapter IV

“Tavi! Tavi! Come on, wake up, wake up…” Vinyl had her hooves on Octavia’s shoulders, and was about to pick her up and shake her – and remembered something. Despite her current career as a DJ, she had actually been a medical student for two years, at her parents urging. One immediate thing came to her – The most important thing when dealing with a neck or spinal injury is keeping the patient immobile, she remembered, with startling clarity given the current situation. Unfortunately, given the thick, putrid smoke beginning to fill the cave from the charred corpse of what might have, at one point, been a Manticore. Another memory from her Canterlot medical school years came back to her, a spell designed to essentially create a magical stretcher, one that could keep a pony completely immobilized while still moving them. She quickly cast the spell, lifting Octavia a few inches off the ground and hustling her out of the cave, eyes and nose burning from the scent of singed hair and flesh. Setting her comatose patient down in the clearing just outside of the cave, Vinyl began to think, struggling to remember any healing or examination spells she had been taught at school.

Come on, Vinyl… the reason you were there in the first place was because you’re smart. Think. You know this, you know what to do… RIGHT! That diagnosis spell! How did I… right, compare the body of the patient to the body of a healthy pony of the same sex. Lucky I’m a mare... Vinyl closed her eyes, holding her breath in concentration, thoughts of her own body flowing from herself and from Octavia, forming an image in her mind of what was wrong with her friend.

Ok, let’s see… cuts and gashes on her left side and flank… ouch, four broken ribs… and… oh, oh no… Vinyl collapsed as the last part of the diagnosis came through. Octavia’s spine was broken. Thank Celestia not severely, the nerves were still connected, but the bones that kept them safe were horribly mangled, a small shard of bone embedded in the delicate nerve tissue.

I can do this. I can fix this. Mostly. Ok… first, disinfect the wound and stop the bleeding externally, right? Yeah, that sounds right… wait, shit, I don't have a disinfectant… the water from the lake? No, won’t do… Gah… Seawater. I remember that. It’s not ideal, but Professor Transfusion always said that in a pinch, salty seawater could work as a disinfectant.

Vinyl looked at Octavia, and through the woods towards the beach, and back to Octavia.

“I’m so sorry… but you need this. I’ll be right back,” Vinyl said as she dashed into the woods, tears starting to form in her eyes. She reached the beach in record time, magically grabbed far more seawater than was necessary, and sprinted back to the cave, as though afraid that Octavia would be gone. She was, however, right where Vinyl had left her, chest rising and falling irregularly, ragged breaths escaping her lips.

Vinyl brought the seawater over to Octavia’s flank and engulfed her wounds with it, magically stirring the water slightly to more effectively clean the gashes. Octavia’s face made slight twitches, wincing just a tiny bit with every magical stroke in the suspended salt water. Satisfied that the injury was treated as best as it could be for now, and concerned at how red the water was growing in her magical grasp, Vinyl released her grip and let the bloodstained water soak into the earth, giving herself just a moments rest before going to work to fix as much of Octavia’s body as she could. Vinyl Scratch was no miracle worker, but the more she focused on healing the gashes, the more she could remember from her professors. While most of what she remembered of surgical magic was primarily the basic theories, Vinyl was desperate enough to hope that theory would carry into execution this time. She remembered one lecture, just before she had dropped out, that she had been planning on skipping but decided not to. The content of that lecture, namely how to repair and set bones properly, healing injuries that would normally take months to recover from in minutes, was refusing to come back to her.

Oh Celestia, why did I go to a party the night before… I was so hung-over that lecture… I’m shocked I can even remember what it was about… ugh, think… think… wait. It wasn’t medicine. But it might work. Oh Celestia this isn’t the time to be experimenting with medical procedures I’ve never even read about, and that aren’t even medical procedures… but… I love this mare. There. I can say that. Or think it at least. I am willing to give my life for hers. I’m willing to try this. Anything to keep her alive.

Concentrating on the diagnosis image she had created earlier, Vinyl narrowed the image down to Octavia’s, and her own, ribcages. Picturing her unbroken ribs, she formed the mental image of an intact ribcage, and began to shift the fragmented bones back to their original positions. She opened one eye for just a moment to see if it was working, and nearly threw up at the unnatural movements Octavia’s chest displayed. Forcing herself to continue, the mental image of Octavia’s ribs began to work it’s way back to a proper, unbroken system of bones, the movements in the cellist’s chest ceasing. She coughed a couple times before her breathing smoothed out, no longer ragged and grating. Vinyl sighed in relief as she let the magic pass out of her body.

I… thank Celestia. I’d have been fucked if my magic was still broken… ok, not done yet. Got to fix her spine… well, at least that art trick I learned seemed to work on her ribs… ok, time for her spine… Oh Celestia, please let me not fuck this up…

Once again, the magic ebbed at her strength as she pulled up an image of her own spine, and began to reform the shattered bones. Carefully extracting the fragment buried in Octavia’s spinal cord, Vinyl let out a silent prayer that there would be no lasting damage. She could fix the bones. Nerves? Not so much. The best she could do was repair the damage to the vertebrae and hope for the best when Octavia awoke. The magic was taking its toll on Vinyl, and she felt herself losing consciousness. She cast a quick immobilization spell on the reforming bones and slapped herself across the face with a hoof, forcing herself awake to finish the spell. As the last pieces fused together, Vinyl collapsed, totally spent. She pulled herself over to Octavia and put a hoof over her, curling up against her like the past two nights. Octavia’s breathing was much steadier now, thanks to her reconstructed ribcage – the ragged, rasping sighs of air were gone, replaced by a smooth, if shallow, rise and fall of her chest. Vinyl sighed, her stamina completely drained, and began to fall asleep.

“When I said I’d never let you go… I meant that with all my heart…”

***

Vinyl slept like the dead. No dreams, no movement, just pure rest. When she finally awoke, she felt extremely well rested – and also extremely hungry. She looked up, trying to locate the sun. She found it – far lower in the sky than she expected, and nearing the wrong horizon.

Shit, I couldn’t have been out for… for more than a day, could I? Almost as if on cue, her stomach growled loudly and she realized just how hungry she was. No way… I’ve never slept that long before. Wait, oh shit, Octavia!

Vinyl frantically looked around before realizing she was still holding the gray mare, who hadn’t moved since Vinyl had last seen her, apparently more than a day ago. She quickly tried to cast the diagnosis spell again, but almost collapsed under the intense pain that filled her chest when she did.

Oh, Celestia that was painful. I’ve never heard of anything like that happening… A pain similar to the one in her chest arose in her stomach, as well. Damn I’m hungry. I should go looking for… something… but I can’t leave Tavi here, and I can’t bring her along. Oh well, another couple hours without food won’t hurt, right? Besides, she’s totally defenseless right now! Anypony could do… anything to her… Vinyl blushed a little and banished the perverted thought from her mind. That’s NOT ok. Vinyl. At all. That is NEVER acceptable. Ugh… damn, I am really hungry. What was that spell I taught myself when I was broke? Extracting nutrition out of plants, right… Vinyl scrunched up her face in concentration, only for the searing pain in her chest to lurch forward again, up into her head and to the base of her horn. She cried out in agony and clutched her skull, mind blank as she wordlessly mouthed prayers to Celestia for the pain to go away. After several minutes of agonized whimpering, Vinyl finally managed to stagger to her hooves and start walking around a little.

“Oh, Celestia… looks like magic is out of the question,” she thought aloud, and shambled over to a tree, making sure she could see Octavia at all times. Carefully, she reached up with her mouth and pulled a large clump of leaves off of a low-hanging branch. Munching down on them softly, Vinyl cringed at the taste, but relished the feeling of having food in her stomach. Swallowing another mouthful from the tree, Vinyl looked around to see if any of those berries that Octavia had found the other night were growing nearby. Unsurprisingly, there weren’t any. Octavia’s smart. She would have picked all the ones nearby. Vinyl settled for eating as many of the rather gross leaves as she could force down, until the taste overpowered the desire to fill her stomach. Returning to the side of her unconscious love, Vinyl sat and simply stared.

I need to get her some water. But… I can’t leave her alone… Oh! I have an idea. Vinyl set to work, collecting a couple exceptionally straight and rigid branches, a couple low-hanging vines, and a nice, fully spread palm frond.

Wait, palm frond? Vinyl looked up. Dear Princess Celestia, I am a fucking idiot.

Above her in the trees hung coconuts. She trotted over to the tree and wrapped her hooves around it, shimmying up on her stomach. Eventually she looked down, noticing that she was a good fifteen feet off the ground. Swallowing heavily, she convinced herself that not looking down was the best option, and continued shimmying up the trunk. When she reached the top, she tentatively stretched out a leg and poked at the coconuts. They swayed slightly, but refused to fall from the tree. Winding up and giving them a much harder hit, she succeeded in dislodging the coconuts – and herself – from the tree. Vinyl fell hard and landed on her stomach, her diaphragm spasming as her lungs refused to operate properly. Her body entirely occupied with trying and failing to gasp for air, Vinyl could only register the pain of a coconut landing on her horn in her mind, unable to scream or cry. After a few more terrifying seconds, her lungs began to move regularly again and she promptly emptied them in a scream of pure agony.

Vinyl lay there bawling for at least ten minutes, before her eyes had no more tears to give and she could function again despite the throbbing pain in her head. Locating a nearby rock, she brought it over to one of the coconuts and gave it a solid thwack. Much to her delight, the coconut cracked but didn’t split open. Giving it another, slightly lighter hit, and pulling it apart, Vinyl managed to split the fruit apart. She brought the white, fleshy bowl to her mouth and happily drank down half of the milk, before scraping the flesh of the coconut from it’s rind with her teeth, relishing in the cool, sweet flavor that filled her mouth. She brought the other half over to Octavia and gently parted her lips, and slowly poured the milk into the unconscious mare’s mouth. Much to Vinyl’s surprise and delight, Octavia unconsciously swallowed the white liquid instead of coughing it up. Vinyl repeated this process two more times before she herself was full and figured that Octavia had had enough to drink. Content that she had done what she could for now, she settled down next to Octavia and draped a hoof over the mare’s chest, dozing off for a nap.

***

When Vinyl awoke, the sun had already partially set, keying Vinyl in to just how long she’d been asleep.

Damn, I need to… but I can’t move her, I don’t know if her spine has healed properly… Shit, looks like rain. Vinyl looked over at the comatose mare next to her, a smile spreading to her face.

She saved my life. She pushed me out of the way and saved my life. It should be me, lying here, right now. Not her. She didn’t deserve this at all. This… though… this is why I love this mare. Everything she does is just… wonderful, even if… just look at her. She’s in a freaking coma, but she’s so peaceful, so beautiful…

Vinyl saw the dark spots on Octavia’s coat forming before she realized it was raining. That’s why there was water falling down her cheeks, coming from the corners of her eyes. It was raining.

“Oh… who am I kidding…” Vinyl sniffed, trying to keep the sobs back, “I’m crying. Like a little filly…” Vinyl sniffed once again, before completely losing control, “Wake up, Tavi! Wake up! Please! I don’t want to… no, I can’t do this without you! I need you here, with me… Octavia, please, wake up! I need you… I love you. I don’t know if you can hear me, but I love you. I’ve loved you since I first saw you. You were… you still are… gorgeous, talented, famous, rich… everything I'd ever wanted to be or to have. Just please… come back to me…” Vinyl’s voice trailed off as she bent her head over the sleeping mare, praying to Celestia she would respond, somehow. Vinyl’s muzzle was inches from Octavia’s now.

“Octavia, please wake up. I love you and I want to tell you. I love you…”

Vinyl gently pressed her lips against Octavia’s.

Gray eyelids fluttered open in surprise. Vinyl pulled away from Octavia’s face and opened her own eyes, and found herself staring into two lavender pools of perfection.

“OH MY CELESTIA YOU’RE AWAKE OH THANK CELESTIA OCTAVIA I’M SO GLAD!” Vinyl practically screamed as she grabbed Octavia in a crushing hug. A moment later she released the cellist and kicked her in the leg.

“Ow, Vinyl, why did yo-?” Octavia flinched back in pain, and saw Vinyl collapse to the ground, sobbing, muttering “It worked, oh thank Celestia it worked…” over and over when she could breath.

“Vinyl…”

The white unicorn immediately stopped crying and stood up, a gigantic smile adorning her face.

“Vinyl… what happened?”

The smile lost a little intensity, but Vinyl began to explain nonetheless, “Well, I’m not entirely sure. After… after it hit you, I just… I can’t explain it. My magic started working again. I ran at the Manticore and… well, I wouldn’t say impaled, but I definitely pierced it’s skin with my horn. And then I just… I unloaded magic into it.”

“I thought your magic didn’t work?” Octavia interrupted.

“It didn’t. But this felt like… a kick-start almost. Like I tapped into a new reservoir of energy I’d never known before. I don’t know. All I know is that I used magic last night, and now, if I try, it hurts like hell. Anyway, when I magicked the Manticore, it just kind of exploded. And then I ran over to you. And… and I… I fixed you. Or I’d hoped I did.”

“How?”

“I… kinda went to med school for a couple years before I could find a steady job as a DJ. My parents knew my calling was music, but they wanted me to have a backup plan if I couldn’t ever get something to work out. Anyway, I didn’t really remember the spell that was actually designed to fix bones…”

“Fix… bones?”

Octavia was rewarded with what she would have interpreted as an annoyed look if Vinyl didn’t still have a goofy smile plastered on her face.

“Yeah. Fix bones. I did remember the diagnosis spell. You had four broken ribs, the scratches you see on your flank, which at the time had been massive gashes, and… well, several of the lower vertebrae of your spine were shattered, and there was a piece of bone wedged in your spinal chord,” Octavia’s jaw dropped as she realized just how much she should have been dead, “I remembered the simple spell for fixing cuts. Well, most of it. I was able to heal the gashes on your flank, but it left some nasty scarring… I’m so sorry about your cutie mark,” Vinyl said, wincing a little as Octavia turned to examine the damage. Four jagged scars, almost the same color as the treble clef that should have been the only thing on her flank. She was about to chastise Vinyl for the mistake, but thought better of criticizing the only reason she was alive. Vinyl began to explain further.

“So I fixed it using a spell I remembered from art class-”

“Art class?” Octavia deadpanned.

Another “annoyed” look from Vinyl.

“Sorry.”

“So yeah, basically, I pictured a proper ribcage and a proper spine, and the spell let me make them. It’s…” Vinyl started to weep again, “It’s a miracle you’re walking Tavi. I’m so happy.” The unicorn launched herself at the cellist again, pulling her into a tight hug.

“Hey, Vinyl?”

“Yes, Tavi?” Vinyl took a step back, still wearing a huge smile.

“Did you mean it?”

Vinyl’s smile disappeared. Her face changed from white to red in a split second.

“Mean… mean what?”

“I must admit… I was awake, for a little while, before you kissed me.”

Vinyl passed out.

Octavia caught her before she hit the ground, shaking her to wake her up. Vinyl mumbled something indecipherable before she fully returned to the land of the waking.

“Hey! Are you ok? You kinda passed out there.”

“I… how much did you hear?”

“I woke up somewhere around ‘I can’t do this without you,’” Octavia said, blushing heavily.

“I…” It would be pointless to deny it now, Vinyl thought, “Yes. I meant every word I said. I love you, Octavia, and I have for years. Meeting you, getting to room with you on a cruise, even for just a week… it was the high point of my life. And then… when I got to see a live performance from you, and you agreed to come to my club… I thought life couldn’t get any better. I guess I was right. Octavia… I…” her voice trailed off, and tears began to fall from her face again. Her breath caught in her throat as a hoof touched her cheek, bringing up her face. She opened her mouth to speak again, but soon found it occupied by Octavia.

The kiss was passionate, Octavia’s tongue taking full advantage of the fact that Vinyl’s mouth had been open from the start of the kiss. Working from years of unused passion, listening fully to the little voice in her head, Octavia engaged in her first make-out with vigor and enthusiasm, if no experience. The experience was nothing short of glorious, all emotions completely blocking out the light rain that had been falling since she had woken.

After what seemed like ages, Vinyl finally pulled away, breathing heavily. Blushing and smiling, a sudden pang of doubt entered her heart.

“Octavia… are you…”

“Shh. I don’t know if I can say I love you,” Vinyl looked crestfallen, “Yet. I’ve never had a marefriend, or even a coltfriend for that matter, but try as I did to convince myself I was straight, I couldn’t think of a time when I’d felt romantically, or even physically attracted to a stallion. Even so, I’ve never considered myself a fillyfooler. But I’ll be damned if I don’t give this a shot. Something’s been bugging me since I met you. I didn’t know what it was. The way you looked in your dress at my concert. The way my heart fluttered when you made an absolute fool of the both of us at the conclusion. The fact that you saved my life. I don’t know if I love you. But I want to find out, and,” she added with a giggle and a sultry glance, “I can’t think of anything better to do on this island, except possibly you.”

For the second time that night, Vinyl Scratch passed out, only to be woken up shortly thereafter by Octavia.

“You can’t go to sleep yet, silly. Sleeping is for afterwards,” she continued in as sexy a voice she could muster, thinking, I probably don’t need to do it like this, though it is fun… Vinyl has proven that she’d be more than willing to do anything for me.

Vinyl practically jumped the mare in front of her at that very moment. She tried to speak, but once again found Octavia taking advantage of her open mouth. This kiss was equally as passionate, and equally as inexperienced, but Vinyl didn’t care. She was on top of the world. She felt Octavia’s hooves wrap around her and begin to follow down the curves of her back as the two ponies continued to kiss. Vinyl took a step back as Octavia became more forceful with her kissing, and tripped on a small stone. Falling down with Octavia on top of her, Vinyl looked into the purple eyes so close to her own.

“Octavia… you can’t imagine how badly I’ve wanted this. And while I can hardly call these perfect circumstances, I can’t imagine a more perfect night. I love you.”

“I know you do.” Octavia stood, turned and began to walk towards the cave. Vinyl stared at her, confused.

“Where are you going? I thought we were –”

“We are, Vinyl. But you know what they say about the moon, right?”

“… No?”

“They say Luna can see everything that happens under it. And I don’t want her seeing this,” Octavia added with a wink, before disappearing into the cave for the night. That wonderful night, which didn’t end until just before dawn for the two mares.

Chapter V

Vinyl woke naturally, wrapped up in Octavia’s legs. Even if she had still been able to use magic, getting out of this position without waking her lover would have proven difficult. Without, it would be impossible. However, either of these scenarios would imply that Vinyl Scratch wanted to get out of this position. Resigning herself to as many more minutes wrapped in Octavia’s hooves as she could, Vinyl tried her best to relax. Of course, Vinyl Scratch had never been good at staying still, and the harder she tried to, the more she found her body quivering lightly.

Celestia, please, can this last forever…

Unfortunately, perfect moments do not last forever, and soon enough this one ended, Octavia’s eyes slowly opening in the dim light of the cave. Vinyl Scratch found another perfect moment as their eyes met, both smiling, after their first night together. Octavia planted a light kiss on Vinyl’s lips, before moving to let her lover up.

“Vinyl my dear… I’m sorry I fell asleep right after, last night… never done that before; it took more out of me than I thought it would.”

“Took more out of you? I put more into you than I thought I would. Seriously, that thing you did with my horn? We should do that again.”

Octavia blushed heavily at the memory and giggled, standing up and shaking the sleep out. Her mane fell loosely down in some places, was ruffled up in others, and was matted down by what was likely a combination of saliva and… other fluids in other places.

“Come on, Vinyl. While that was positively euphoric… I feel that perhaps falling asleep in a small puddle of our own… well, sex, was not the wisest decision in terms of personal hygiene. Shall we wash off?”

Vinyl simply smiled and nodded as she stood up. Her mane and coat were equally matted and ruffed up as Octavia’s. She tried to fluff it up a little but merely ended up blushing furiously as her hooves ran near the base of her horn, discovering a still slightly damp spot on top of her head.

“Yeah… that’d probably be a good idea,” Vinyl said, following Octavia out of the cave. She found her eyes drawn to Octavia’s rear, convinced that there was no way the typically reserved and conservative mare walked with that much swing in her hips normally. As her eyes slowly swayed back and forth, they were drawn to the scars over Octavia’s cutie mark. She stopped in her tracks as a lump formed in her throat.

“I’m… I’m so sorry, Tavi…” tears began to fall.

Octavia turned around and walked up to Vinyl, lifting her face with a hoof under the chin. She planted a quick kiss on Vinyl’s lips and pulled her into a hug.

“Hey. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be alive. You’ve saved my life twice now. A little scarring is hardly worth getting upset over when I could… when I should be dead. Besides, it looks like the lines on a musical staff, see?” Octavia released Vinyl, turned and showed her flank, “It’s just like a staff.”

“Tavi… that has got to be the worst justification I’ve heard for anything,” Vinyl said, giggling through her tears, “And I love it. I love you, Tavi.”

“I know, Vinyl, I know. Now, I believe we were on our way to wash off? You smell like… me,” Octavia said, wrinkling her nose in mock disgust.

“I dunno, I kinda like this smell,” Vinyl replied with a wink. Octavia rolled her eyes but couldn’t suppress a smile, before resuming walking towards the lake. Reaching the cool, clear water, Octavia happily dove in, shaking her mane around under the water in an attempt to get the sex out of it. Failing that, she began rubbing her hooves through her mane. Still unable to get some of the worst clumps out, she brought her head above the water to inhale and was about to try again when she noticed Vinyl holding a coconut and a rock.

“Vinyl, dear, what are you doing?”

“Coconut milk makes for a good conditioner. I figure with the state both of our manes are in, we could use it.”

Octavia simply stared at the white unicorn, giving her best how the hell do you know that face.

“I already told you that most of the time I was in med school I wasn’t actually studying medicine. One of my friends gave me a book of ‘useless trivia.’ Guess it wasn’t so useless after all. Now come here.” Vinyl smashed the rock into the coconut, not enough to split it but cracking the fruit to its core. Wading over to Octavia, she turned it and let the white liquid dribble out of the crack and into the earth mare’s mane. She was about to reach her hooves up to begin rubbing it in when Vinyl took over doing that as well. Octavia simply leaned back onto the stomach and chest of the white mare behind her and let the euphoria of having another pony work on her hair take her. While she wasn’t poor, Octavia rarely allowed herself the pleasure of going to a professional mane stylist, and most often cut her own hair (a feat that impressed many unicorns even more than her cello playing, given how elegant her mane always was). But this feeling… Octavia couldn’t get enough. She let out a low moan, reveling in the wonderful feelings originating from her lover’s hooves. My lover… yes. She loves me… that makes her my lover. But that sounds so… scandalous. Marefriend? Yes. Marefriend. That sounds just right. Oh, Celestia this feels good… Octavia let out another pleasured moan, causing Vinyl to giggle.

“Liking this a bit much, are we?” Vinyl asked.

Octavia blushed and nodded. “Seriously, Vinyl you must let me do this to you afterwards. It feels simply…” she shuddered as Vinyl’s hooves rolled behind her ears, sending a tingly jolt down her neck, “simply divine.”

“If you insist. Careful around my horn though, it’s still a bit… sensitive.” Octavia shifted her weight to let Vinyl out from beneath her, and dunked her head under the water to remove the last of the coconut milk, quickly running her hooves through her mane, surprised at how effectively the milk had cleaned out her hair. Returning to the surface, she turned to see Vinyl lying on her stomach, eyes cast seductively over her shoulder at Octavia.

“Well if you lay down like that, how am I supposed to get to your head?”

“Sit on my back.”

Octavia colored slightly. “Isn’t that a bit… sensual?”

“Octavia, love, you were having no problems with ‘sensual’ last night.”

“If you keep bringing it up like that, I’m breaking up with you,” Octavia retorted, putting on a faux pouty-face.

Vinyl whipped her head around so fast she threw her glasses off, a look of terror in her eyes.

“I’ll never mention it again I promise please don’t leave me I love you so much,” she said, rolling over and launching herself at Octavia, knocking the earth mare into the water.

“Vinyl, dear, I’m so sorry… I was just joking… I didn’t think you’d take it so seriously. Honestly, it would be very hard to get me to break up with you, silly. What would I do then? Be cave-mates with my ex? That sounds fun,” Octavia tried to comfort her marefriend, who was practically on the verge of tears. In her current state of mind, Vinyl missed the sarcasm in Octavia’s voice, and completely lost it, bawling and sobbing out apologies, swearing to never even think about doing things with Octavia ever again, as long as she promised not to leave her.

Note to self: detecting sarcasm is not this mare’s strong suit.

“Vinyl.”

Still sobbing.

“Vinyl.”

No change.

“Vinyl.”

Unable to elicit a proper response, Octavia decided there was one way to get through to the mare. She leaned down and kissed her.

Vinyl, finally removed from her spell of terror, quickly melted into the kiss, allowing Octavia’s tongue into her mouth. After a few moments, Octavia broke the kiss, both mares’ breaths coming slightly heavier than normal.

“Vinyl Scratch. I’m terribly sorry for what I said. I was trying to be sarcastic. I like you, a lot. I’d have to, to do what we did last night. I don’t want to lose you, not to anything, not to anyone. I’m sorry. Want me to clean your mane now?”

Vinyl blushed a bit at the realization of how much a fool she’d been, and nodded, removing herself from the cellist. She turned and sat upright, in as perfect a posture as she could maintain. Octavia giggled before shoving her over, the unicorn landing on her stomach. Before she could let out an upset question, she felt a wet pony straddle her lower back. She blushed at the sensation, but didn’t question it. As a wet pony stomach met with more of her back, Vinyl Scratch had to wonder what was going on. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, a low, sultry voice entered her ear.

“You tell me the story of how you fell in love with me, and I will give you the best mane washing you’ve ever had. Tell me how you got your cutie mark, too,” she added, with a light tug on Vinyl’s tail to emphasize her point.

Vinyl let out a light gasp, and conjured the memories.

“Well, it started when…”

***

Vinyl Scratch had just finished another set at her nightclub, and was on her way home. She wasn’t exactly struggling to get by with the income from DJing, but at the same time, she wasn’t exactly rolling in it. She reached her apartment building, walked in, and began the ascent to her third floor home. Reaching the door, she levitated her key from around her neck and entered. In the darkness, and from behind her sunglasses, she couldn’t see what it was she’d stepped on. Magically flicking on the lights, she levitated the offending object to her face, removed her sunglasses, and read the note taped to it.

My Dearest Vinyl Scratch,

I would like for you to consider the following as a token of my appreciation for being such a wonderful tenant. I received it in a contest I won, but, unfortunately, I do not have a record player to make proper use of a record. While I am not certain if it will suit your tastes, I know you enjoy music and figured you, of all the ponies I know in this building, are most deserving and most likely to enjoy the auditory pleasures I’m sure this piece of vinyl holds.

Your landlord and friend,
Mr. Keys

Vinyl smiled. Mr. Keys was a truly nice fellow; it was a shame that simply due to the location of his building that it tended to attract less reputable tenants. Vinyl had a good relationship with her landlord, one that had started one night when he’d invited her to his home to have dinner with his family, the first of many small “thank you’s” for being his “best tenant.” Without looking at it, she magically removed the record from its sheath and floated it to her phonograph, letting the needle down and powering on the device.

She tensed a little – thinking of the music she usually listened to, taking this long for there to be any sound typically implied there was one hell of a drop to come.

Much to her surprise, it never came.

Instead of the intense base drop she was expecting, a deep, tremulous tone filled the air. It sounded almost like… a cello?

Vinyl’s lip curled in disgust.

Classical shit… nopony listens to that music anymore. It’s ancient, creaky, and elegant. No, wait, that’s not right!

Vinyl smacked herself in the face with a hoof and cursed the thought that classical was “elegant.” She hastily depowered her phonograph and retrieved the record, eager to end the soothing… er, grating noise coming from the machine.

Did I just… did I just like a piece of classical? She levitated the record over to her, inspecting it to find the source of this music. Nothing but a lavender treble clef and a date far closer to the current one than she expected adorned the record. That’s odd… this only came out a couple months ago. Ponies still make this crap? Vinyl shelved the vinyl, wordlessly reminding herself that it was the thought behind Mr. Keys’ gift that was what counted, not how well it had actually been executed. Content to leave it on the shelf and forget about it, the white unicorn collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep.

***

The next evening saw her at home much sooner than usual.

Hell, it’s not even midnight. Stupid fucking druggies… they know they’re not supposed to light up in the club, but noooo~ he just HAD to get high RIGHT THEN… Vinyl thought back to the incident. One of the partygoers had produced a poison joke cigarette and attempted to ignite it, but failed and caused a small blaze on the dance floor. While, thankfully, the club itself remained unharmed, the first responders insisted the place be closed down for the evening, and that the damaged floor be repaired as soon as possible. And with that, Vinyl found herself at home.

I guess I’ll just party by myself, then. Retrieving a beer from her icebox and telekinetically levitating a record from her favorites collection to the phonograph, she collapsed on her couch. She was met with another unusually long silence before the music began.

Oh, must be Monstercat’s newest… oh this drop is gonna be so good! Once again, Vinyl tensed, awaiting a sudden, loud burst of synthetic music.

As with the night before, it never came.

The low, sustained opening cello note filled the room. Vinyl would have removed it immediately, but she’d already downed most of her beer, and magic became dangerously unstable with even a little alcohol in a unicorn’s system. Stupid genetics giving us a bad name as lightweights… it’s just that alcohol and magic don’t mix and the more alcohol the less conscious of that fact you are… gah, might as well listen to this now.

Three hours later, Vinyl Scratch sat in her shower, cold water flowing over her, having an identity crisis.

It’s good. No, it’s bad. How can it be good? How can I like this music? I’m Vinyl Scratch! I’m the Baroness of Beats, the Duchess of Dubstep, the Empress of Electronica! How can I like this? It’s so… so soft, so soothing… it’s horrible! Why do I like it so much… how can… Vinyl’s thoughts were interrupted by a sob lodging itself in her throat.

How can I be crying over this? Who cries because of music? Music is a source of joy! I need to find out who is responsible for this… after… after a bit more cold shower. And some sleep.

***

The next morning, Vinyl Scratch found herself walking through downtown Canterlot, searching for any information that could lead to revealing the secret that tormented her. She’d been wandering the city for hours, but eventually she found something, something in a shockingly big way. Adorning the billboard outside the Canterlot Garden Arena was a highly stylized image of a gray earth mare with a lavender treble clef cutie mark, apparently holding a cello. The advertisement simply displayed a name and some dates, presumably the name of the mare in question and concert dates, one of which happened to be tonight. Vinyl Scratch ran towards the building, hoping that there was a ticket left.

So… Octavia Philharmonica. This is the name of my undoing.

***

As it happened, there had in fact been a few tickets left, and Vinyl Scratch had secured herself one of them. Now arriving for the actual concert, she had positioned herself in a seat by the aisle, fully expecting to get up and walk out part way through. She idly tapped a hoof, waiting for the concert to start, and glanced around the massive concert hall. She noticed a few ponies giving her dirty looks, a few almost seemed like they were trying to avoid her eyes. She could see why, though – there wasn’t another pony wearing anything less than a dress or suit, all with beautifully styled manes, and there she sat, with nothing but her sunglasses and unkempt mane. She yawned, turning her attention back to the stage. Suddenly, the lights flicked off, with a single spotlight illuminating a circle in the center of the red curtains. A magically amplified voice that sounded shockingly similar to the Princess of the Night’s own (affectionately known as “Ye Olde Canterlock”) floated through the room.

“Fillies and Gentlecolts… I present to you the one and only Octavia Philharmonica!” Instead of the wild cheering an introduction like this would have met at one of Vinyl’s events, a rather reserved applause came from the crowd. Vinyl rolled her eyes, but just the same, focused on the stage. The curtains drew apart and Vinyl’s jaw dropped, her breath drawn unbidden from her lungs. The most ravishingly beautiful mare she had ever seen stood in the center of the stage, alone, wearing an elegant, stark white dress that accentuated every curve on her body and made her flowing, dark grey mane stand out perfectly, without distracting from any of the rest of her. Her face curved gently, but retained an apparent jawline with flowing cheekbones that seemed to come from nowhere. What shocked Vinyl the most, though, was a connection she hadn’t made earlier – this mare, this drop-dead gorgeous mare, was an earth pony. She had no magic to assist her.

And then she began to play.

It started slow, simple, and solemn. Gradually, it began to speed up, just like it had on the record Vinyl had listened to the night prior. Eventually, it reached a cheerful, quick melody, if still much slower than Vinyl was used to. Then everything changed.

The pace of the music doubled, multiple notes filling the air at the same time, the gray mare on stage sawing and heaving with her bow, rolling her hooves to depress the various strings to various lengths, drawing a rapturous chorus of noises from the wooden device that sounded almost as though there were three or four of her on stage. Drawing the bow across two non-adjacent strings, pulling one final, exultant note from the cello, the gray mare struck a pose, chest heaving, before bowing to the audience, the curtains closing as she brought herself upright once again.

The audience erupted in a roar of applause. Every pony in the room stood, clapping their forehooves together. Every pony, except one. One miss Vinyl Scratch, who sat, weeping, unable to wrap her mind around the beauty she had just experienced. A white unicorn stallion with a blue mane and a monocle noticed, and spoke up.

“First time?”

Vinyl nodded.

“I cried too, my first time. Miss Philharmonica is truly the most skilled cellist alive, and some claim she’s the greatest cellist who’s ever lived. Personally, I agree with them,” he finished, with a smile. Vinyl returned his smile, having stopped crying now. She stood to join the standing ovation, shocked at how long the audience had been applauding this mare.

I… I think I’m in love.

***

Octavia sat on Vinyl’s back, having long since finished washing her mane, idly massaging her marefriend’s back and the unicorn between her legs recounted the tale.

“And… that’s when I knew,” Vinyl finished. She heard a soft sniffling above her, and managed to roll onto her back underneath Octavia. To her shock, Octavia was crying.

“Did… did you know… the reason I played like that that night… I’d forgotten my music. Completely. That night… I remember that concert. That was complete improvisation. I thought the crowd hated it. I messed up so badly. I was actually fired from my orchestra at that point because of that night.”

“That’s ridiculous, Octavia. That was, and still is, the most amazing music I’ve ever heard, and played by the most beautiful mare I’ve ever seen. I loved you then, Tavi, and I love you now. I love your music. If ponies call your music bad, know they’re lying,” she said sternly, pulling Octavia down into a kiss.

“Thank you, Vinyl… knowing at least one pony loved it…”

“Well, this white unicorn next to me liked it as well. Blue mane, monocle. Fancy jacket. There was a ridiculously thin light pink unicorn mare with him. He said it was the best performance you’d ever put on.”

“Fa- Fancy Pants liked it?! That must be why I was hired by another orchestra almost immediately!” Octavia’s visage changed to joy, and Vinyl failed to stifle a giggle.

“Fancy Pants? His name is literally Fancy Pants? Oh that’s rich… oh Celestia that’s priceless…” Vinyl laughed from beneath her marefriend.

“Hey! He’s a very important pony! He’s considered one of the most influential ponies in Canterlot, aside from the royalty, of course. Why, he’s even a personal friend of the Princess!” Octavia huffed, with a slightly dreamy look in her eyes.

“Hey! You’re taken, remember? And I think he is, too.”

“Oh, I’m not so sure if I’m taken…” Octavia muttered. Once again, Vinyl’s eyes went wide with horror. Octavia quickly remedied her mistake, though, leaning herself down over Vinyl Scratch in as sensual a manner she could manage, her face only a hoofsbreadth away from Vinyl’s. Eyes half lidded, Octavia called forth all her bewitching feminine charms, and whispered in a husky voice, heavy with lust.

“I think you should convince me.”

It took Vinyl a moment to catch on, but not a second longer to act on it.

***

Two hours of convincing – and another wash – later, Vinyl and Octavia were both trotting happily through the forest, searching for something to eat (besides each other) for lunch. Wandering farther from the cave, the pair found a decent amount of food. Gradually the dirt beneath them began to shift to rock, and the trees began to thin out. Octavia was absorbed in her thoughts, and, were it not for Vinyl’s sudden touch on her neck, she would have walked off the cliff the pair now found themselves standing atop. Octavia found her breath conspicuously absent from her lungs as she took in the sight – a massive, sheer cliff face, descending at least a hundred and fifty meters almost straight down, to a jagged, rocky shoreline. There would be no surviving a fall from here. At the same time, Octavia found it impossible to deny the beauty of the location.

“Gorgeous…” she breathed.

“What, you or the locale?” Vinyl replied, a goofy smile on her face.

“Well, I was talking about the scenery, but you seem to be incapable of going five minutes without informing me I’m beautiful as well, so both, I guess. I still don’t believe you about the noodles, by the way,” Octavia said, with a smile.

“You’re welcome. And I told you, if it weren’t for those noodles, I never would have gotten my Cutie Mark. You’re right, though – this really is a beautiful setting. I’m certain this island would be massively popular if anypony knew where it was.”

“Yeah…” Octavia turned around. Surveying the island in it’s fullness for the first time, she realized that it really wasn’t terribly large, no more than a couple hours walk from one end to the other at most. The beach extended along the south side of the island, with the cliff on the west side, and the forest covering the center, north, and east. Aside from the cliff they were on, the island was quite flat as well. No wonder nopony seems to know this is here… it’s tiny, flat, and entirely unremarkable. It would be hard to spot, even for a flying Pegasus. As Octavia thought about that for a second, she realized something. It was very possible she and Vinyl would be on the island until their dying day, and every day spent without rescue only made that more likely. While she couldn’t think of a better pony to be spending her days with, the thought of being on this island until she died horrified her. She felt her knees grow weak, her mind blank. Her body collapsed, rolling dangerously over the edge of the cliff.

Vinyl Scratch moved faster than she ever had before, forehooves wrapping around Octavia’s rear leg as her body tumbled over the edge, praying to Celestia her own rear legs would find purchase. When they did, Vinyl hung there for a moment, making sure her position was stable, before beginning to pull Octavia back over the edge. Succeeding in dragging the now passed-out mare away from the edge, and shook her awake.

“Holy Celestia, Octavia! I told you I’d never let you go, don’t make me hold to that literally!”

“You… I thought that was a dream! You… you really said that?”

Vinyl turned bright red. Oh damn it. Once again, I’ve gotten myself into a situation there’s no good way out of except the embarrassing truth.

“Yes. That night you had the dream… before I fell asleep, I whispered that to you. And I mean it. I will always be there for you, Octavia. No matter what happens between us, I will always be your friend, and I will always care for you. I’ve said it several times, but I’m just gonna keep saying it until you get it in your head: I love you. Now and forever.”

Tears welled in Octavia’s eyes. It had only been a day. But her heart told her it was right.

“I love you too, Vinyl Scratch.”

Chapter VI

Vinyl looked at her. She was happy, beyond happy – but her mind hadn’t caught up with her ears yet. She stared at Octavia, a dumb, disconnected look on her face. Slowly, the smile in her ears reached her mind, and it clicked – resulting in the smile reaching her face.

“Tavi… I… do you really mean that? Honestly? You’re not just saying this because I’ve saved your life… three times now?”

Octavia smiled and chuckled lightly at the sentiment.

“No, I’m quite sure I mean it. Before I elaborate, though, you might want to stop grinning – I’ve never seen a pony smile so broadly. Your face might get st-” Octavia wasn’t able to finish her sentence. Vinyl Scratch had launched herself at the mare, hugging her tightly and pulling her into a deep kiss. Octavia melted into the warmth of her lover, feeling the soft hooves rise up her back, Vinyl’s forelegs hooked underneath Octavia’s own. Octavia hesitantly brought her hooves up to Vinyl’s face, gently pulling it away from her own. Both mares opened their eyes part way, smiling. Despite the half-lidded eyes, the look they gave each other was not one of lust or desire, but one of bliss, a look of having found the pony each wanted to spend every moment with, awake or otherwise.

“Octavia… why? Why do you love me?” Vinyl’s face took an abruptly serious demeanor.

“Miss Scratch. I could list adjectives for hours – you’re kind, you’re intelligent, you’re a musician equally as talented as I, you’re beautiful beyond belief, you’re willing to give your life for me… but that’s not why I love you. In truth, I can’t put it into words. I can tell you all the things that make you loveable, or worthy of being loved, but when it comes to why I love you… I can’t say. There’s some… connection, you might say. Being with you… despite what has happened… when you hold me I feel safe. When you kiss me, I feel like nothing else in the world matters. I can’t quantify what I feel for you, but I do. I feel it with all my heart.”

Vinyl removed her glasses, revealing her eyes to Octavia. Much to Octavia’s surprise, they were brimming with tears, Vinyl’s lips trembling and holding onto the vaguest semblance of a smile.

“That’s… that’s exactly what I’d hoped you’d say. You’re perfect, Tavi, you know that?” Vinyl’s smile broke and she lowered her head, putting her face into Octavia’s neck and weeping into her shoulder.

“You are too, love, you are too.”

The pair sat, snuggled against each other, looking westward over the ocean towards Celestia’s descending sun.

“Vinyl dear… I think we should head back now. It’s going to be dark soon, and I’m rather uncomfortable with the thought of falling asleep so close to the edge of a cliff.”

Vinyl Scratch’s only reply was a pleased groan and a nod. Slowly standing up, the mares shook the weariness from their limbs. They shared another brief kiss, and began to descend from the precipice at a leisurely pace. The mutual revelation of love kept them in a state of acceptable, blissful silence, as both contemplated the potential for the development of their relationship – Octavia wondering what would happen if they ever got off the island, Vinyl Scratch concerned about how to live on it. Content with their fantasies and thoughts, the two arrived back at their cave in seemingly much less time than it had taken them to go the other way.

In fact, it had taken much less time for the mares to return to their cave. The sun was beneath the horizon, but the night was still young and neither mare was tired.

“Say, Vinyl…” Octavia began. The white unicorn laying with her head in the cellist’s lap blinked her eyes open, looking towards her marefriend’s face. “Were you involved with that fiasco with the Royal Wedding a few months back?”

“Was I involved? Honey, I DJ’d the reception after everything went down. I was there for the incident, too. You were, too.”

Octavia abruptly stopped brushing Vinyl’s mane. “How… how did you get that job? And how did you know that?”

“Simple. I saw you there. In fact, now that I think of it, I’m pretty sure I saved your life.”

“What are you talking about? I’d never met you until the first night on the ship,” Octavia replied, confused, but also intrigued.

“Met? No, we hadn’t ‘met.’ That doesn't mean I didn’t know who you were – though I suppose that’s obvious – or that we’d never seen each other and perhaps not realized it. I’ll tell you how I got the job, too. That’s the easy part of the story. At any rate, as I recall it, you were wearing the most beautiful dress…”

***

Vinyl sat on her couch. It was a boring day. She’d woken up for no apparent reason at the unreasonably early hour of three forty-five in the afternoon. Normally she wasn’t awake until at least six. Luckily for her, that meant she wasn’t woken up by the pounding on her door. A deep, female voice that Vinyl thought she recognized floated through her home.

“We have been informed this is the residence of one Miss Vinyl Scratch, a DJ of the highest calibre. Is she home?”

“Who wants to know?” Vinyl shot back, irritated she was awake so early.

“We, the Royal Princess of the Night, have a request for her. We do believe the vernacular term for such a request is… a ‘gig,’” the voice continued, audibly uncertain of her choice of words.

Oh fuck me, that’s Princess Luna! I knew I recognized her voice… wait, she has a job offer? Vinyl scrambled to her hooves and dashed for the door, telekinetically combing her hair for a couple strokes. She opened the door and bowed.

“Your Highness, it is truly an honor to meet you. What have I done to deserve to be graced by your presence?” Vinyl asked, trying to use as many formal terms as she could.

“Please, you may refer to us as Luna. It is I who am honored to meet you, Miss Scratch. Since our return, your music has been a comfort many an hour spent alone in the Castle. We find it’s style most… forceful,” the Night Alicorn stated, smiling, hoping she had picked an appropriate word to describe her appreciation of this new “dubstep” music that so penetrated the youth of the day’s music collections.

Vinyl gaped. For one, she’d never heard her music described as “comforting.” For two, she just found out that one of the Royal Sisters was a fan. Before Vinyl could articulate a reply, Princess Luna continued speaking.

“Our sister has given us the charge of acquiring entertainment for the night following the Royal Wedding of Captain of the Guard Shining Armor and Princess of Love Mi Amore Cadenza. We have decided that given the young nature of the engaged, they would appreciate some of your music. Our thoughts were that we could do one better than having your music: having you appear personally.”

Vinyl Scratch passed out.

***

Vinyl walked through the streets of Canterlot, eager to get within the Castle Grounds and begin preparing for the night’s festivities. She knew the Captain of the Guard’s magic was to keep any potential threats out of Canterlot for the day, but instead of a comforting shield it felt more like a foreboding prison. She hoped that getting inside and preoccupying herself with setting up her DJ booth and sound equipment would take her mind off of things.

Much to her relief, it did.

There was something else to distract her, though.

While she had been working and making sure everything was plugged in properly, microphones were positioned to avoid feedback, records were stashed in a concealed but easily accessible location, other ponies had been wandering in and out of the large, open area in the center of the Castle’s gardens. Most were Unicorns, though the occasional Pegasus or Earth Pony caught her eye as well. They all seemed so stiff and uptight – most of them, anyway. She’d seen that white Unicorn with the monocle from that first concert she’d been to the year prior, and had a brief conversation with him and his wife. Vinyl cursed herself for not having properly introduced herself or gotten either of their names when they left. Other than that, the steady trickle of ponies had been unremarkable.

Except for one.

Octavia Philharmonica trotted confidently into the garden, nose high and eyes shut. She was wearing a simply stunning, jet-black dress that seemed to shimmer and shine like polished obsidian in the light. A long, narrow slit drew up one leg, revealing only part of her light purple cutie mark – a fashion considered very risqué by high-class ponies. Vinyl Scratch hid a blush by hiding her whole body behind a massive speaker, peaking out only momentarily at the gorgeous mare striding absent-mindedly through the garden.

If she’s here… I can talk to her tonight. Introduce myself. Maybe make a friend. Find out which team she plays for. Find out if she’ll ever be more than a friend… Vinyl’s thoughts faded from coherency into a general state of bliss as she played out the scene in her mind, throwing out some cheesy pick-up line that the high-class cellist would absolutely swoon over, throwing herself at the DJ for a night of passionate love-making to kick off their life together.

An explosion and something that sounded like shattering glass snapped Vinyl out of her reverie. She looked up in panic, expecting to see a crossed wire on her soundboard that had accidentally destroyed a table full of wine glasses. What she saw instead was much, much worse.

Horrifying, deformed creatures that glinted in the sun like a finely honed dagger and an appearance similar to rotting flesh buzzed through the air on insectoid wings. Fangs caught in the light and cast jagged reflections on the ground, vaguely resembling a twisted, vampiric smile. The most terrifying part, however? That came when one landed in front of Vinyl Scratch and, in a burst of green fire, became an exact duplicate of the quaking mare, the only difference being the look of malevolence, greed, and hunger in it’s eyes. Vinyl Scratch did the only logical thing – she blasted it in the face with magic and ran like hell.

Forgetting her twenty-thousand-bit stereo equipment, forgetting her favorite headphones, forgetting her drink and food, forgetting everything but her glasses, Vinyl Scratch ran. Out of the garden, though the Castle, and out into the streets of Canterlot, where a heart-stopping scene was unfolding before her. Ponies ran from clones of themselves, Royal Guards were trapped under sticky ropes of gelatinous green goop, buildings crumbled from the wild magic blasts of distraught unicorns vainly fighting back against the oncoming horde of bug-like ponies.

This is just a dream. Just a nightmare. This can't be real, Vinyl said to herself. Bracing to wake up in a cold sweat, she slapped herself across the face, hard. When nothing changed, she felt her knees grow weak. Desperate to escape the terror, Vinyl forced herself to keep moving. Had she not been looking over her shoulder to escape what was behind her, she may have noticed the green flash against the wall as she ducked into an alley. She slowed to a trot and looked up at the sight before her.

“Oh, my goodness, Miss Octavia!” Vinyl exclaimed. These were not the optimal circumstances, but given the living hell she was going through, she felt this was a now or never moment. “Miss Octavia. I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear right now but for the past year I’ve known that I’m in love with you and I really just wanted to let you know that if anything happens because I honestly don’t think we’re all going to live through thi-”

Vinyl’s rant was cut short by Octavia pressing her lips to the Unicorn’s. It was bliss, pure love that Vinyl was feeling. She parted her lips slightly to allow Octavia access to her mouth, gently prodding her own tongue forward. Bliss gave way to a too-pointy-to-be-a-pony’s tongue and a set of too-sharp-to-be-a-pony’s teeth, as Vinyl felt… something being drained from her. If she had to name it, she’d probably have to say it felt like happiness; like something was draining the happiness from her. As Octavia’s probing tongue reached farther into her mouth, Vinyl thought something seemed off. Something was definitely off when she felt Octavia’s tongue begin to inch its way down her throat. Vinyl pulled away, leaving a good eight inches of split, reptilian tongue hanging from Octavia’s mouth. The mare’s normally purple eyes were replaced with cat-like, emerald-green orbs filled with that same greed and hunger she’d seen before, in the not-Vinyl Scratch that had appeared to her in the garden. Vinyl gagged, screamed, and turned once again to run.

Elsewhere, the real object of Vinyl’s affections was having a similarly unpleasant time. She had run from the beasts, but taken a wrong turn and ended up cornered against a cliff. There were at least a dozen of them facing her, and she had nowhere to go but through the army of demons or straight down. She chose the nowhere option. This was a decision she instantly regretted. One of the beasts leapt at her, and brutishly shoved her down on her shoulders, folding her forelegs, but leaving her rear in the air. She prayed to Celestia this wasn’t going where she thought it was, but in the current circumstances, she felt no hope. Her fears were only reassured as the creature leaning on her hiked up her dress and unceremoniously yanked her tail to one side. Octavia had tried to keep her composure so far, but this utter destruction of her dignity left her with no reason to hide her emotions. Octavia wept, tears flowing down her cheeks and onto the grass as she braced herself for the coming violation of her chastity.

It never came.

Instead, a shriek of pure, unadulterated fury came howling from behind the malformed black ponies, a blue explosion clearing all of them from Octavia’s field of vision, before something impacted with enough force to rip the creature mounting her clean over the edge of the cliff, whatever had struck it following closely behind. Octavia stood and ran to the edge of the cliff, desperately hoping her savior would be hanging onto a branch or pipe or something cliché like in the action films she’d seen. Much to her dismay – which was, admittedly, putting it very softly – the mysterious pony was nowhere to be found. Given the drop off of the cliff, unless the pony that had saved her was a Pegasus, one of the Princesses, or an extremely talented unicorn, they were almost certainly dead. Octavia crawled to the nearest corner and cried. Moments later, a wall of pink energy coursed through her being, giving her an oddly at-ease feeling. She stood, dried her tears, and began slowly make her way home. She wanted nothing more than a cold shower and some time alone to herself to cry.

Meanwhile, in the bottom of a ravine, Vinyl Scratch laughed to herself as she lay bleeding out.

“Did I really just… fuck. I never even told the real Octavia that I love her… heh… heh…” one final breath escaped the mare and her world faded to black.

She awoke an hour later in a hospital.

“I… what… hell… what?” Vinyl grumbled, trying to figure out what was going on.

“We saw you save the cellist then fall. You have been dead for forty-eight minutes, but will be fully healthy again in about twelve more. Do not worry, we have made sure you will still be able to DJ the reception tonight. Do not feel as though I chose to save you over another, however. You were the only reported death, miraculously.” Princess Luna was smiling down at her.

“I… I was dead? And I’m not? Wha-” Vinyl wasn’t sure if the Lunar Princess was messing with her or not, especially considering the explanation she’d been given when she’d questioned further was “ancient, powerful Alicorn magic.”

Sure enough, though, she’d made a full recovery after another twelve minutes, and was DJing up a storm that night after the real wedding had taken place. Only the Princesses and those that were first-hoof witnesses of the incident with the first ceremony knew what had taken place the first time, so Vinyl wasn’t entirely sure what had gone wrong, although she assumed it had something to do with the black bug-ponies. She smiled – the newlyweds were enjoying her music, as were most of the other ponies in the garden. A few of the fanciest-looking ones didn’t seem to be having a good time, and much to her dismay, Octavia didn’t seem to be present. Vinyl sighed, and almost missed a song transition, before resigning herself to focus solely on DJing for the rest of the party.

***

“You’re a zombie?”

Vinyl laughed. She’d known this would be the first question out of Octavia’s mouth, and it had been for many ponies who’d asked her about her experience at the Royal Wedding. “Well, you see, yes and no. It is true that I was clinically dead for forty-eight minutes. However, when Princess Luna brought me back, it’s not like I’m a zombie. I still have a heartbeat, I still need to breath air, and I don’t have an insatiable hunger for brains. Yes, I was dead, and now I’m not, but I’m not a zombie.”

“Ah.”

A few seconds passed.

“You tried to tell me you loved me… back then?” Octavia asked.

“That I did. I didn’t know what was going on. I thought we were both going to die. It seemed like as good a time as any,” Vinyl stated, with a blush and a shrug.

An awkward silence descended between them. Vinyl Scratch couldn’t figure out what to follow that statement up with, and Octavia was trying to muster the courage for her next question. To Vinyl’s initial thanks, she succeeded. What she asked, however, was not what Vinyl had been expecting.

“You… you’re the pony that saved me from being raped?” Octavia asked, quietly.

Vinyl Scratch paled. “Yeah. I didn’t know that it was trying to do that at the time, but… I couldn't stand to see that ever happen to you,” Vinyl hissed, pounding the dirt next to her with a hoof.

“Yeah. At least I think that’s what it was trying to do. But if it had… I wouldn’t have been able to give my virginity to you, Vinyl.”

Vinyl’s mood whiplashed from anger to joyous disbelief, and her mouth hung open.

“You… I was your first?”

“You were.”

“Hehe… this is cliché as hell, but… believe it or not, you were mine, too. Not that I hadn’t wanted it before, but I’d never… Wow, Octavia. That’s… that’s really special. I… wow. Just… wow,” Vinyl, while not a pony of a particularly advanced vocabulary, rarely found herself at a loss for words. This was one of only three times she could remember – once when the Princess had admitted she was a fan, once when she’d first seen Octavia perform, and once now. Instead of trying to form a sentence with her misfiring brain, she simply smiled, and gave her love a huge, goofy grin.

Octavia laughed. She loved the way Vinyl smiled like that. Suddenly, a mischievous, sexy idea came into her head. “Vinyl… you know what I’ve always wanted to try, though?”

“What’s that, babe?”

“Sex on the beach,” Octavia said with a wink and a giggle. “Would you like to be my third, as well, love?”

“I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.”

***

“Captain Swashbuckle!” A white stallion with brown spots on his coat and a hoof-held telescope for a cutie mark called down from the crow’s nest.

“What is it, Spyglass?” A burly, brown-coated stallion with a pair of crossed sabers on his flank and a tricorne upon his head answered.

“I see an island! And there’s two ponies on the beach! Looks to be a couple of mares, sir!”

“Well, what are they doing?”

“It looks like… it looks like they’re sleeping!”

“Sleeping? What the bloody hell are two ponies doing sleeping at this hour of the day?”

“Well, sir… it looks like they may have been up rather late, if you get what I’m saying, sir!”

“I do, Spyglass, I do. And two mares, you say? You know what that means, don’t you, Spyglass?”

“I… I’m afraid I don’t, sir!”

“It means we’ve got a job to do.”

Chapter VII

Vinyl woke to a sandy feeling on her back and a soft, warm, slightly sticky feeling on her front. She smiled, remembering the night prior. Octavia was right… sex on the beach was a fun idea. As more of her mental facilities joined her in the realm of the waking, she realized that she desperately needed to use the facilities. She attempted in vain to worm out from underneath her marefriend without waking her as well, but failed.

Vinyl Scratch could not have asked for a more perfect failure.

Octavia’s eyes opened slowly, their deep, amethyst pools drawing the entirety of Vinyl’s attention away from her need to urinate. Octavia’s mane fell down around her face in frizzy strands, giving off an uncharacteristically unkempt look to the Canterlot mare. Vinyl Scratch giggled and kissed her.

“Good morning, love. Sleep well?”

Octavia’s only response was a grunt and a smile.

“Me too. But, dearest, I need to pee. Would you mind letting me up?”

Octavia grunted again, and, still smiling, rolled off of Vinyl and onto her back in the sand next to her lover. Vinyl gave her another quick kiss before trotting into the woods to do her business. Feeling the need to get the sand out of her fur, Octavia stood and sketched a quick “WENT TO WASH” in the sand, and walked into the woods towards the lake near her shared cave. She felt happy. Despite the circumstances, Octavia felt truly happy for the first time in as long as she could remember. She felt passion and happiness when she played her cello, but she hadn’t felt the true joy she got from loving the unicorn mare and knowing that she loved her too. Watching Vinyl run around and trip over a root only to fall head over hooves into a mud puddle, and her standing up seconds later and pulling the cellist into a hug, covering the both of them in mud. The alabaster mare’s inane babbling in her sleep. The way her mane fell when it was wet. Somehow, Octavia knew not exactly how, but somehow, she knew that no matter the circumstances, she could be happy if Vinyl Scratch was at her side. She wouldn’t go so far as to say she felt so happy she could die, because she knew Vinyl felt the same way, and Octavia dying would mean leaving Vinyl all alone. And that would just break her adorable little heart, Octavia thought.

Meanwhile, Vinyl had returned to the beach and found Octavia’s note, and began to trot through the woods toward the lake, intent on getting dirty before she got clean. Vinyl Scratch would have best described her feelings as “content.” She was with the mare of her dreams, hopelessly in love with that extremely talented and beautiful musician known as Octavia Philharmonica. The very thought that she was together with the cellist sent shivers down her spine, which culminated in a tingly feeling near the base of her tail. Her eyes… if Vinyl had to pick one part of her marefriend she loved the most, it would be her eyes. They were gorgeous. Deep, welcoming, joyous globes of the sheerest obsidian, ringed by what could have been mistaken for the most wonderfully shining amethyst. She could stare into those eyes forever, taken with the simple joy of being in love. She resigned herself to the pleasant thoughts and resumed the steady trot through the woods.

Octavia heard a rustling in the bushes behind her and turned to greet Vinyl.

“Oh Vinyl, I was wondering when you were going to get here,” she said, suddenly putting on a pathetic, faux-helpless tone, “there’s this spot on my back that I simply cannot reach on my own. Would you be so kind as to… you’re not Vinyl.”

A buff, chocolate-brown stallion wearing a long coat stood at the edge of the pool, covering his face with a tricorne hat. On one side of him stood a white stallion with brown spots all over his coat, looking like he’d just caught his parents in bed. On the other side stood a surly tan stallion with a gold earring and a cutie mark of a pair of barrels.

“I’m terribly sorry ma’am, I didn’t mean to intrude-” the one in the center began.

“Who are you? Where did you come from, why are you here? Where’s Vinyl? VINYL!” Octavia shrieked as she frantically tried to cover herself up, some animal part of her brain telling her she was naked, despite the fact that she almost never wore actual clothing.

The white mare burst from the trees a moment later. “Octavia! Are you ok, what’s wrong?” Vinyl couldn’t see anything wrong with her marefriend, and began to follow to where her hoof was pointing – and spotted the three stallions standing on the other side of the lake. In a flash, Vinyl was in the lake and at Octavia’s side, one hoof over her shoulders, positioning her body between her friend and these unknown stallions.

“I’m sorry, ladies, I did not mean to intrude. Allow me to introduce myself and my crew – I am Captain Swashbuckle, owner and commander of the Silver Star. This here’s Spyglass,” he gestured to the white and brown stallion, who nodded his head in assent, “The navigator and cook. This lump of muscle on my right is Cooper. He manages supplies and discipline issues. We of the Silver Star are a humble bunch, sailing not for profit but for pleasure, helping those in need of assistance, and perhaps, on occasion, receiving assistance from those who need it less than others. If you’d be so kind to share with me the names of two lovely mares such as yourselves?” he said with a wink. His smile seemed genuine, but there was something off about him. Vinyl thought so at least, but Octavia seemed rather taken by his manners and the emphasis that he owned a ship. Then Vinyl realized why Octavia was so interested in what he was saying – there was a way off this island.

“My name’s Vinyl Scratch, and this is my marefriend, Octavia Philharmonica!” the DJ declared proudly, pulling Octavia in for a quick kiss, an act which caused the gray mare to color considerably, though she didn’t object. As she’d faced away and blocked Octavia’s vision, neither mare could see the look of revulsion that overcame his face momentarily at the kiss. He’d recovered his composure before the two had returned to face him.

“The DJ and the Cellist? I thought you two went down with the Harmonious,” Captain Swashbuckle said in flat disbelief, for it was the truth. It had been an unprecedented tragedy – three hundred and ninety-three ponies had lost their lives. Not even the magic of the Princesses or the Elements of Harmony could do anything to change that, and not for lack of trying. The poor Princesses had been working themselves to death, almost literally, ever since the accident, trying to do something, anything to bring back the ponies they couldn't save whose deaths the sisters blamed themselves for.

“Well, we didn’t, miraculously. How many other ponies made it off?” Octavia asked, eager to hear some good news.

Captain Swashbuckle’s head fell. “I hate to be the bringer of bad news, ladies ladies, more than three hundred and fifty ponies perished in the accident. Thanks to quick thinking and powerful magic, the Royal Sisters were able to save more than nine hundred, but... not all of them.”

Octavia’s eyes widened in horror. Vinyl cursed and held her marefriend tighter, willing the tears not to come, but finding herself unable to hold them back. Both mares wept. Captain Swashbuckle gave the mares the time they needed. He was a gentlecolt, or at least he fancied himself one. Others would not agree. All the same, he waited the adequate time to let the mares’ crying end. When he felt like enough time had passed to break the silence, he spoke.

“You mares look like you’re in pretty dire straits. I could give you passage to the nearest port, but it’s a few days away by our small, humble Silver Star. If you’re willing to deal with some rather cramped living spaces for a time, then we may just be the answer to your prayers, ladies. What do you say?”

Octavia said nothing, but looked at Vinyl, who nodded weakly. Octavia in turn looked to the sailor ponies and nodded.

“Ok, then. I’ll leave you two alone for a while and get the ship ready to leave. We’re on the east end of the beach. I’ll see you ladies in a while,” Swashbuckle said, turning and exiting into the woods with his crew.

Octavia looked at Vinyl Scratch, eyes red from crying, yet at the same time full of excitement. “We… we can go home, Vinyl. We can go back to Canterlot, or Ponyville, or even Manehattan or Los Pegasus or Stalliongrad… we can go home, Vinyl, we can get a home, we can… we can have a life together!”

“Moving in together? Don’t you think we’re taking this a bit fast?” Vinyl chuckled. “Aww, who am I kidding. I couldn’t think of a nicer idea. But I dunno, Tavi. Something about this guy… I don’t trust him. I don’t know why, but something is telling me he’s got something bad planned.”

“Oh, Vinyl, he was such a gentlecolt. How can you say that?”

“Octavia, we met him thirty minutes ago. How can you say that?”

“I… ok. I know. But… we can go home, Vinyl.”

“Yeah. I’m excited too. I don’t see any reason not to trust him, but just… be on your guard. Especially around that beefcake Cooper. I didn’t like the looks of him at all.”

***

Barely contained fury seeped from Captain Swashbuckle.

“Those… heathens. Those filthy, disgusting, Celestia-damned fillyfiddlers. How can they live like that and pretend that it isn’t a violation of everything our good Princess stands for? It’s wrong, it’s vile, it’s… ARGH!” Swashbuckle growled and fumed, muttering curses every few seconds.

“We’ll show them tonight… tonight we’ll show them how they’re supposed to live. Spyglass, I know you’ve never really held as strong a feeling on this, so Cooper and I will take care of it. Cooper, you take the Cellist. But that DJ dyke? She’s mine.”

***

Hours later, the two mares had joined the Captain and his two crewmembers aboard a rather cramped sailboat, though neither was going to complain. A ticket off the island was a ticket off the island. Evening had rolled around and the Captain had invited the couple to the mess hall for dinner.

Vinyl and Octavia sat in the cramped dining hall on board the Silver Star. Spyglass had turned potatoes into a surprisingly delicious meal, and both mares felt more satisfied than they had in days. They thanked the stallion heartily for the meal, and as Vinyl excused herself, Captain Swashbuckle spoke up.

“So how does it feel?” The tone of his voice made Vinyl’s blood run cold.

“W… what do you mean?” Vinyl asked, attempting to keep her voice steady, and failing miserably. She looked at Octavia, who had an equally fearful look upon her face.

“How does it feel… to throw back in Celestia’s divine face everything she stands for, everything Equestria holds dear?”

“I… I’m afraid I don’t follow…” Octavia said weakly.

Captain Swashbuckle slammed his hooves down on the table, scattering dishes and silverware, which Spyglass hastened to clean up, before grabbing a towel and cleaning the spilled drinks as well. “Doesn’t it bother you? At all? To know that your… heathen, disgusting lesbian lifestyle is a detriment and a threat to every pony you come in contact with! Celestia damns you! You know that, do you not? Yet still you stray!”

Vinyl was on her hooves now as well, shouting. “What gives you the right to judge us? Celestia passed the law decades ago that homosexual relationships were to be legal in all of Equestria, and never in our history have they been nationally outlawed! Why are you even saying that Celestia forbids it? She endorses it, our Princess wants nothing more than her subjects’ happiness, in any form that it may manifest!”

“Vinyl, please…” Octavia tried to interrupt, but was cut off by Captain Swashbuckle again

“That’s not our ruler! The Changelings have infiltrated the highest echelons of our society and government before, it is a safe assumption that they have done so now for this so-called ‘Celestia’ to pass a law legalizing homosexual marriages! It’s… it’s barbaric! It’s wrong! It’s immoral! I’ll give you this one chance. Renounce your evil ways now like a good, honest Celestian, and I shall bring you back to port unharmed. Refuse… and I will be forced to try more convincing methods.”

“As if. I love Octavia more than anything in the world, and that’s never going to change,” Vinyl stated, glaring at the captain, a look of unbridled hatred in her eyes.

“And I love Miss Scratch similarly,” Octavia added.

“Very well. That is your final decision. That is… regretful. Mr. Cooper?” The huge, barrel-chested and barrel-flanked earth pony hooked his forelegs around Octavia’s neck and back legs, restraining her completely.

“OCTAVIA!” Vinyl screeched, whirling back to Captain Swashbuckle, “If you so much as think about hurting her, I swear to Celestia I will fucking kill you,” Vinyl said, the icy daggers in her voice failing to pierce the armor Swashbuckle had erected about himself.

“Thoughts are the least you should be worried about. Mr. Cooper, you may now show Miss Octavia the pleasures of heterosexuality.” Octavia’s eyes shrunk to pinpoints as she realized exactly what was about to happen to her.

“YOU FUCKING BASTARD!” Vinyl roared, lunching across the table at the Captain stopping short as a flash of steel caught her eye, and suddenly there was a sword at her neck. Unable to move without slitting her own throat, Swashbuckle flashed her an evil smile and motioned for her to get down from the table.

“You, you blasphemous whore, are going to learn just as your ‘marefriend,’ over there. Only I will be your teacher. If either of you want to survive, you will not resist and you will enjoy this. Mr. Cooper? Escort Miss Philharmonica to your quarters and do with her as you see fit. Miss Scratch?” The white unicorn glared down her nose at him, with nothing but murder on her mind, “Would you be so kind as to accompany me to my quarters?” It was not a request. It was a command.

“Octavia. I’ll figure something out. I promise. I’ll get us out of this. I love you.”

Cooper had not yet left the room, and still held Octavia firm in his massive forelegs. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she swallowed hard, nodding. “I love you too, Vinyl Scratch.”

And with that, they disappeared out of the mess hall.

“Come, Miss Scratch. My quarters are the other way,” Swashbuckle instructed, motioning with his saber for Vinyl to exit out the other doorway in the room. “Thank you for the meal, Mr. Spyglass,” the Captain said, tipping his hat as he moved through the passageway.

“You’re very welcome, Captain,” Spyglass said, emotionlessly.

***

In Mr. Cooper’s quarters, Octavia was re-living the nightmare of the Royal Wedding. She was trapped, with nowhere to run and her only other option being death. Whatever happens… I have to see Vinyl again once this is over with. I have to persevere through this.

She was thrown roughly to the bed, which was nothing more than a small, barely padded cot, and felt a weight on her shoulders as Cooper pressed them down, leaving her rear lifted in the air, exposed for the world as he roughly pulled her tail aside. Octavia closed her eyes and prayed that her lover would rescue her again, save her from this violation of her fidelity to Vinyl, tears descending like a waterfall from her eyes.

The door swung open.

“Oh, Mr. Spyglass, so good of you to join us,” Cooper said, before directing his words at Octavia. “Open your mouth, wh-”

A glint of steel.

Cooper’s speech cut off abruptly with a gurgle and a rush of air as Spyglass suddenly stood over her. Octavia felt warm, sticky liquid pour onto her back.

Octavia screamed.

Celestia, why, please… no...

Wait.

This isn’t...

Suddenly, Cooper’s entire weight collapsed on top of her, his bulky body pressing Octavia flat against the cot. Octavia opened her eyes, saw blood, and promptly shut them again.

“Miss Philharmonica,” a gentle voice said. She dared open her eyes again, and saw the smiling face of Spyglass, who hauled Cooper’s body off of her. “While I cannot say I approve of your lifestyle choices, I am in no position to judge. I have not approved of Swashbuckle’s leadership for some time now, but this is so much worse than anything he’s ever told either of us to do. I’m so terribly sorry it took me so long to gain the courage to act. You’re not hurt, are you?”

Hurt? AM I HURT? I WAS JUST ALMOST RAPED YOU FUCKI- he’s apologizing. He just walked into this room, killed his crewmate, and told me his captain is wrong. He’s helping me. He’s saving me.

“I… I’ll recover…” Octavia said, rising unsteadily to her hooves.

“Come on, let’s go get your… marefriend,” he audibly struggled with the last word.

He’s really… I can’t believe he’s doing this.

The pair exited Cooper’s quarters and onto the deck, the night sea air bitter and heavily salted. They rushed through the mess hall and into a small storage room between the dining area and the Captain’s quarters. Spyglass wasted no time rushing in.

***

Vinyl Scratch heard the scream from the Captain’s quarters at the aft of the ship.

“Fuck. You,” she hissed through gritted teeth.

“Ah ah ah! That’s no way to talk to your master. Although, soon enough, you will be,” he said, his voice a chilling sing-song tone. Vinyl knew he was touched in the head – anyone who so much as considered Princess Celestia to be a changeling had to be completely deranged. Perhaps it had been one too many days under the ocean sun, or perhaps he had always been a fucking psychopath. Vinyl was leaning towards the latter, as he still had his sword pointed at her throat.

“Now roll over, onto your stomach,” he commanded, making a small circular motion with the tip of the blade. Vinyl Scratch obeyed. It was degrading. It was rape. All she wanted was for it to be over.

“Lift your rear.”

Again Vinyl complied.

“Oh look at you, you dirty slut. Keeping your tail short so any passing floozy can get a look at the goods, eh? Well I’ll change that. You will be so used up not even that whore of a cellist will want you.”

Vinyl felt hooves on her shoulders and an unpleasant pressure beneath her tail. She grit her teeth and screwed her eyes shut.

Suddenly the pressure was gone. Vinyl looked over her shoulder, but Swashbuckle had disappeared.

Despite hearing the door open, and the clop of hooves against wooden flooring, Vinyl left her rear obediently raised in the air, swishing her short tail to the side, presenting for Swashbuckle upon his return. If she was going to go through with this, she’d at least make it as easy for him as possible.

“Vinyl, oh Celestia what did he do to you…”

“Octavia?” Vinyl whirled around, suddenly finding the energy to leap to her marefriend and kiss her passionately.

“Ladies, please…” Spyglass said, eyes darting nervously about. “Now is not the time. Where’s Swashbuckle? He should be he-” Octavia heard his voice cut out with a mortifyingly familiar gurgle. Both mares looked back in time to see the saber withdraw from the back of Spyglass’ neck.

“That’s ‘Captain’ Swashbuckle to you. Well, not anymore you mutinous scum.”

Swashbuckle wiped his sword on the sheets before slowly making his way to the two mares.

“You know… I’ve never been with two mares at the same time… twice the conversion from sin! You’ll be begging for more when I’m through with y- ARGH!” Captain Swashbuckle fell, screaming in agony, blood flowing from just above the heel on his back right leg. Spyglass, still on the ground and lying in a pool of his own blood, wheezed a single word.

“Run.”

Both mares obeyed, running past the dying stallion and the incapacitated Captain, out through the kitchen and onto the deck. A small dingy was attached by ropes at the back of the ship. Vinyl hastened over to it, adrenaline overriding the fatigue in her body. Unfastening the knots and watching the boat descend to the water with a splash.

“Octavia, come on, get over here! Let’s go!” Vinyl yelled at her marefriend. Octavia obliged, and Vinyl helped her into the boat, noticing the blood on her back for the first time. “Celestia above, Tavi, what happened to your back?”

“Not mine. Let’s go,” Octavia said, eyes still wide, drawn to pinpricks, and leaking tears.

Vinyl joined her in the dingy, pulling at the oars before losing her grip on them, her hooves shaking too badly to hold the glorified wooden planks. As she made the first stroke in the water, a roar of guttural rage emerged from the ship, the Captain’s brown form launching from the aft of the vessel. In a split second, Octavia was perched on her back hooves, holding one oar like a baseball bat. She swung.

The oar connected with a mighty crack, Swashbuckle’s head and neck turning at a wholly implausible angle, and his body fell into and under the water. Octavia still stood in the dingy, chest heaving, hair a mess, eyes unfocused. Her knees gave way, and she fell into her marefriend’s lap.

“It… it’ll be ok… it’ll all be ok, Tavi… we can… we can get back to the island… we can pretend this never happened… oh Celestia Tavi I’m so, so sorry… I’m so very sorry…” Vinyl’s voice broke, becoming sobs and wails of regret.

“No… it’s my fault. You know what, though? I still love you. No matter what, right? I love you,” Octavia replied, her breath slowing as the adrenaline left her system.

“I… love… too…” Vinyl managed to choke out. Uncaring for anything but each other in the moment, they fell asleep in each other’s hooves, hoping to wake up from this nightmare, to find out it was all a bad dream.

Chapter VII-2

Octavia awoke with a warm, soft body under her, and a gentle rocking sensation rolling through her entire body. As she opened her eyes, the blinding light of the sun met her gaze, and she quickly shut them again against the painful light.

“Vinyl?” Octavia said, through gritted teeth and eyes screwed shut.

Nothing but a groan in reply.

“Vinyl!” She shook the white unicorn violently, rousing her.

“Hmm, what? Octavia? What’s going on? Where are we?”

She hasn’t called me Octavia since… onboard the Harmonious… oh no…

“Vinyl! I love you! It’s me! Tavi! I think…” Octavia risked opening her eyes again, and looked around. The small raft was beached on the island she – well, thought she – had been on for the last week with her new marefriend, “I think we’re on our island. Come on, babe, wake up, I love you…” Oh Celestia, I haven’t dreamt this all, have I?

“‘Our’ island? Octavia what are you talking about?” Vinyl sat up, mind still largely asleep, displacing the gray mare laying on her.

Oh no. Octavia’s eyes went wide, disregarding the pain of the massive intake of sunlight, as the small world she thought she had on the island with the love of her life shattered. She broke into sobs, burying her face in her hooves, and collapsed into Vinyl’s lap.

“Hey, Tavi, what’s wrong? I thought we were on that little boat going home?”

She called me Tavi.

“Y-you remember that?”

“Yeah. They found you in the pool, and I came and got you, and then we got on the boat. Weren’t they bringing us back to the mainland?” Vinyl asked, cocking her head to the side.

“You… you don’t r-remember anything aft-after that?” Octavia asked through the tears, looking up into Vinyl’s big, beautiful, red eyes.

“No… the last thing I remember was eating a delicious dinner on the boat. Why are we back on the island?”

“I… if you honestly don’t know, I’d prefer to keep it that way… it… wasn’t very good. Vinyl, though, dear… you still love me, right?”

“Mmm,” Vinyl grunted, before exiting the boat and striding across the beach.

Oh Celestia please kill me. I can’t live like this. I don’t want to live like this. She doesn’t love me, she never did… but I love her… that can happen, right? You can fall in love with a pony through a dream? Or perhaps just realize a love… no, no no no… Octavia’s mind, to prevent a critical error rendering her incapable of movement, quarantined the thoughts in an instant, and rebooted itself, trying to clear out any lingering sadness. Here I am, with a pleasant mare, surviving on an island after a cruise liner sank. I did not fall in love with her. She has not saved my life. I was not almost raped.

Right?

Octavia, not without concentrated effort, pushed the doubt back and set off after her lov- friend. Is she even that? Oh… I told her I loved her! Twice! If she doesn’t even know me… she probably thinks I’m some weird stalker or something! Oh what have I done… No. Octavia Philharmonica. You are a good mare. Think positive. Go to the cave.

“Miss Scratch?” Octavia called.

“Yeah?” the unicorn looked over her shoulder, smiling slightly.

“Shall we find shelter?”

Why’s Tavi acting so weird?

“Uh… sure. Isn’t the cave that way?” Vinyl Scratch lifted a hoof and waved it in the general direction of where she thought the cave had been.

Octavia’s trot faltered for a moment. “You know where the cave is?”

“Um… yeah? We’ve been on this island for what, a week now?”

Octavia’s legs stopped working. It wasn’t a graceful collapse to her haunches, either – she was mid-step and the leg she put her weight on simply failed to hold. Her face impacted the sand with a thud. Her mind waged a war within itself – had she dreamed it all? Had it actually happened? Was she dreaming now? Her mind failed to answer any of these question, losing control over her body, and, surprisingly, not caring that said body was currently about to suffocate. She found herself curiously unable to lift her body, despite her inability to inhale. Panic overtook her momentarily, her body seizing and lurching as her diaphragm attempted to vacuum air into her lungs and failed, finding too much resistance and moisture and too little air in the dense sand. Her hooves flailed uselessly at her sides for just a second, before she reached a surprising state of calm, and allowed herself to fall limp as her consciousness began to fade.

I’m sorry. I love her. I can’t deny that. I don’t want to. Vinyl Scratch, I love you beyond reason should allow, and I cannot bear to be in this world without you. I… I can only hope that this doesn’t hurt you as much as it hurt me.

Seconds later her vision returned and a pain grew in her side. Octavia was vaguely aware she was lying on her back, staring up at the sky.

“Octavia… be careful. You did a face-plant and then didn’t get back up. It was funny for a second, but then you looked like you started to suffocate. You were flailing and twitching… it was really scary. Please, don’t ever do that again. I can’t use magic anymore, remember? And even then, I can’t raise the dead. Tavi, don’t do something that’ll leave me here alone.”

“I… what? Why do you care? What… Vinyl Scratch. I need to know something,” Octavia grimaced, her head still throbbing. She grit her teeth and prepared for the worst. “Do you love me?”

“Huh? Wh-” Vinyl cut herself off, mind working. Octavia’s heart stopped at the hesitation.

Oh, Celestia no! I knew it was a dream!

She has told me she loves me like… a lot more than usual today. I haven't said the same. Now she’s crying. Come to think of it, this is kinda how we first got on the island… Oh, Celestia – she thinks it was a dream!

“Of course I still love you, Tavi! I have for years! I always will!” Vinyl nearly yelled,” If you were dreaming, you still are… and I am too, then… if we are… I hope we never wake up. I love you so much, Tavi. Please, stop… stop crying, or I’m gonna… gonna start… I’ll always love you…” Vinyl reached towards her marefriend, putting a hoof on either side of her face, lifting it.

“Octavia… Philharmonica…” she whispered, voice trembling, “I love you so very much. I will never, ever leave you. Not ever. Ok? Even if this is a dream, you wake up, you come find me, and I will love you. You understand that, don’t you?”

“V-vinyl, that doesn’t m-make any sen-”

“I don’t care. What I care about is you listening to me right now when I tell you I am yours, forever and always. Thick and thin, this island or back in Equestria, I will be there for you, helping you, loving you. You are everything to me, Octavia. I’ve lost magic, I could lose my job, my music, my sight, my hearing – but none of that will matter if I am with you. I want to be with you until I die, Octavia. The more I think, the more I remember what happened to us last night. We were on that ship, and they tried to rape us. That one stallion is the only reason we’re not… well, he saved us, and he lost his life doing so. While I was doing nothing. I sat by and let it happen. I don’t ever want anypony else to have to do that. I want to be the one protecting you, saving you, being there for you when you need me most,” Vinyl said, a look of loving determination in her eyes. She kissed Octavia lightly, before sitting back on her haunches, her hooves sliding down Octavia’s face, past her neck, over her chest, and down her arms, until Vinyl held the cellist’s beautiful, supple, wonderfully skilled gray hooves in her own. “I would willingly give my life for you, but… I would rather give my life to you. I… I… I want to… will you…” Vinyl Scratch trailed off. Without warning, she lunged forward, kissing Octavia forcefully. “I want you to marry me!”

Chapter VIII

Thirty seconds passed. Vinyl looked at Octavia expectantly, eyes and ears eagerly awaiting her lover’s response. When Octavia hadn’t moved a muscle in those thirty seconds, Vinyl Scratch knew something was off. She thought back to what she said, and realized the full weight of her words. The DJ paled.

“Oh Tavi I’m so sorry I was just talking and that just came out I don’t mean it well yes I do but… oh Celestia Tavi please I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

Her apology fell on deaf ears. For Octavia, time had stopped at “marry me.”

Of course I will! Octavia’s initial thoughts rang loud and clear in her mind. I… but… I’ve known her for a week. I’ve known of her for longer, but I’ve only known her for a week. She has loved me for years… she must be ready for this. I… I’m not, though. Oh, but I can’t say no, saying no would break her heart. I’m not ready to say yes, though. Maybe? No, a ‘maybe’ is just as bad as a ‘no.’ Hmm… I could say ‘not yet’… since that would imply that I do love her enough, but I’m not ready, right? That would be a good option… oh who am I kidding. ‘Not yet’ is just as bad as ‘maybe.’

“Octavia, I’m sorry! That… that just slipped out! You don’t have to say yes! You can say no! I’m sorry, that was way too soon, oh Celestia I fucked this up didn’t I…”

My father always told me there was no shame in moving away from an issue you don’t know how to solve and coming back to it later. Granted, he phrased it a bit differently… but I don’t think ‘He who turns and runs away lives to fight another day’ is precisely applicable… that’s it! I can just go away for a little while! No problems with that at all.

Then and there, of all the responses to an unexpected marriage proposal, Octavia Philharmonica chose the worst.

She stood up and ran away.

Vinyl Scratch was too horrified to react for a moment, and by the time she had processed the images before her, Octavia had already disappeared around the corner of the beach.

“Octavia? Octavia! Tavi come back! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry… just come back to me…” Vinyl’s pained wails faded to a squeak as a lump rose in her throat. Without warning, her stomach dropped and her head felt light; she leaned against the side of the dingy and threw up, remnants of last night’s dinner splattering into the sand and water. The memory of what had happened last night made her gag again, her already empty stomach straining to force something, anything back out. Vinyl fell to her knees, narrowly avoiding the puddle of her own vomit, and rolled onto her side. She pulled her back legs up to her chest, wrapping her forelegs around them. The tears that came weren’t unbidden in the slightest, and she let them flow freely into the sand as she convulsed lightly, sobs jarring her body as she wailed her lover’s name.

If… if she even still loves me…

The thought only made her cry even harder.

Octavia the cellist was lost.

How can I be lost? This island is tiny! I mean, seriously, it can’t be more than two miles across. How have I managed to walk around for hours and not get anywhere? I must be walking in circles. Small circles. Then why don’t I recognize any of these trees? Ugh! This is so… if Vinyl were he-

“Oh, hell.”

It was extremely unusual for Octavia to curse aloud – she was a Canterlot pony after all, and public profanity was extremely frowned upon in that fine city. As such, almost every citizen had extremely good self-control when it came to vulgarity, Octavia being no exception. In this situation, however, she felt the self-imposed rule could be broken.

“I… I really… I really fucked that up, didn’t I. Of all the possible options… she proposes to me, and I… I ran away. What… what kind of awful pony am I… Oh, Vinyl… I’m so sorry love…”

A lump grew in the gray mare’s throat as she realized what she had done to Vinyl. A sob forced its way out of her, followed by another. Before she could try to stop it, she had lain down and was weeping into the ground, softly cursing her own stupidity and wishing Vinyl were with her.

Damn it, damn it, damn it… I’m such a stupid, awful marefriend… she’s probably alone, crying, thinking I don’t love her anymore… I need to get back to her. I must. Octavia stood, her legs shaky and hoofsteps uneven, and took a few steps forward. Oh Celestia I’m going to need an answer. Well… this islands isn’t so big, but I am thoroughly lost. I’ll have some time yet to decide… still, I feel like every decision is a bad one. I can’t say no and risk losing her, but I just don’t feel comfortable saying yes… ah. This… does she have any idea the situation she’s put me in? That was so selfish, so unfair of her!

Selfish? Unfair? She was upset that she wasn’t the one who saved you on the boat. She has saved your life, at great risk to her own, what? One, two, three times now? Four if you count that stunt you tried to pull in the sand. You’ve saved her how many times now? Once? And that resulted in one of the times she had to save your sorry flank. Vinyl Scratch has been anything but selfish. She outright told you that given the option, she would gladly die to save you. And you… you call her selfish. Unfair? She bared her very soul to you, asked you to spend your life with her – and you don’t even give her a proper answer. What did you do again? Oh yeah. You ran away. Now she’s alone and doesn’t know how you feel. You think she’s being unfair?

I… I… that’s right. I’m… it’s my fault. Oh, Vinyl doesn’t deserve such a terrible pony as a marefriend, much less a wife…

Hey now, that’s the wrong line of thinking and you know it. She loves you so very much. Just go back and talk to her. Who knows? Maybe she herself has reconsidered the offer. The only way you can find out is if you go back and talk to her.

“Right! I’ll just head back to the cave! We can talk this out! Everything will work out… it will!” Octavia said triumphantly, unconsciously striking a pose, before breaking into a full gallop. She stopped a moment later. Oh Celestia. I just had an argument with myself, in my head. What… that’s normal, isn’t it?

Of course it is.

She resumed her gallop, praying she would make it back to the cave before the rapidly approaching sundown.

Vinyl Scratch had been back at the cave for quite some time. Though she had run out of tears over an hour ago, she still sat, head in hooves, sobbing.

I can’t believe I said that… Oh I’ve really screwed the pooch on this one. She’s probably not coming back. Just off, finding her own cave to stay in until… if… we get rescued. At least… at least I still have this, and memories of her… Vinyl moaned softly and stood up, walking over to Octavia’s cello, which sat, untouched from when they’d discovered it on the beach days earlier. She took the case in her forehooves and brought it close to her body as she lay down. The sun was about to set, there was no point in staying awake and prolonging the anguish Vinyl was experiencing at that moment. The cold, hard, enchanted plastic made a poor substitute for her marefriend, but it still smelled a little bit like her, and that would have to do for now. She gave the case one final, tight squeeze, before allowing sleep to take her.

Octavia made another exception to her rule against public profanity.

“How the fuck am I still lost?” She hissed, before letting out a frustrated yell. It was long after sunset, but it wasn’t completely dark yet.

“Ok, Octavia. Two options: Keep going and try to find Vinyl, or find somewhere to spend the night. I really want to get back to Vinyl, but I’m clearly getting nowhere,” she calmly stated, addressing herself, “So… I shall pursue this endeavor for another hour or so, and then seek shelter.”

Satisfied with this plan, she once again set out to locate the cave she shared with that wonderful white DJ unicorn. Octavia sighed as she trotted through the forest, a single tear trailing down her cheek. She looked to the ground, and noticed a set of hoofprints traveling roughly perpendicular to her own. A joy in her heart, she took off like a rocket, following the trail through the forest. Soon enough, however, she noticed there were in fact two sets of hoofprints.

“Oh for the love of – no, nope. Just… calm. Stay calm. Everything will be alright if I stay calm. Just need to blow off a little frustration,” she thought aloud. Octavia planted her forehooves in the dirt and kicked back with all her might at an unfortunate tree, leaving a pair of hoof prints of a not insignificant depth in the tough wood.

“Alright. Find somewhere to sleep. Tomorrow, I find Vinyl,” she resolved, trotting forward. Soon enough, she came upon a small cave, rather similar to the one she had been spending nights in, and stepped inside. Much to her surprise, the cave seemed to extend farther down into the ground, and a soft glow emanating from the depths. Intrigued, Octavia decided it couldn’t hurt to investigate the cave further.

The beauty of the cavern astounded her – the walls sparkled and glittered with blues, oranges, and silvers, with occasional streaks of a glassy black substance showing through. Octavia pressed her hoof up to a vein of grainy blue rock, and was surprised that even a light brush scraped off a substantial amount of blue dust. She tipped her hoof and let the powder fall to the ground, watching it form into a small puff before falling to the ground.

What… what is this place?

She continued her descent, trying to find the source of light. An increasing warmth began to permeate the air, pleasant, but slightly disconcerting for the gray mare. She turned a corner and gasped. There, embedded in the wall, was a glowing section of rock. She pressed her hoof to it, and confirmed her suspicion – this was the source of the warmth. It felt hot under her hoof, but not painfully so. She scraped at it, and, just like with the blue material, the warm, glowing stone turned into a glowing dust under her hooves. She picked it up, and gave it a tentative sniff. Unsurprised at the lack of scent, she let the dust fall from her hooves, the tiny fragments of rock scattering as they hit the floor.

“These… would be a wonderful element to add to our cave! I should bring some back! Oh, but I don’t have anything to hold it in. I suppose I can come back later.”

Octavia kept walking, moving farther into the cave. Soon, the gold sparkles on the ceiling and walls became more common, eventually giving way to a cyan material that glittered and glinted in the light. She was about to inspect it more closely, when she thought she heard some movement behind her. She looked over her shoulder, and, to her horror, a spider sat on the ground. Octavia had never been particularly fond of spiders, and the fact that this one was more than a meter across aided little. Had she been on the surface, surely Vinyl Scratch would have heard the piercing shriek that erupted from the cellist, who ran as fast as she could towards the exit of the cave. To hell with sprucing up the cave. To hell with it. TO HELL WITH IT! Forgetting the glowing dust, forgetting the blue stuff, forgetting everything but getting as far away from that spider as possible, preferably while getting closer to Vinyl Scratch.

Octavia reached the entrance of the cave, and took off in a direction that seemed to offer the least resistance. As she ran, she eventually thought she noticed the ground inclining beneath her. Sure enough, she had managed to locate the cliff. Standing atop it, she once again regarded the island. It was nearly too dark to see at this point – nearly. She oriented herself and charged down the hill towards the beach.

If I can get to the beach, I can get to Vinyl. I need to get to Vinyl. I’m coming, love.

Octavia panted, completely out of breath. She had arrived at the cave. It had taken her long enough, but she was here now. And so is Vin… she’s sleeping with my cello. Octavia giggled at the sight of her marefriend draped unceremoniously over the cello case. That can’t be very comfortable… I have an idea. Octavia stepped over and carefully wiggled the instrument out of her lover’s grasp. To Octavia’s delight, Vinyl remained snoring. She gingerly lifted the white legs and snuggled herself up against the mare. Content in her lover’s embrace, she placed a light kiss on her lover’s alabaster lips. Pleased she hadn’t woken Vinyl, Octavia closed her own eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Octavia awoke to a slight trembling sensation, and sniffling. She opened her eyes and found Vinyl Scratch meeting her gaze, tears falling down.

“Tavi… Tavi you came back…” Vinyl whispered, barely contained joy in her voice.

“Of course I came back, silly. I. Love. You,” Octavia said, punctuating the sentiment with kisses. “I love you so much. You didn’t think I was going to leave you, did you?” Octavia asked.

“I thought… after yesterday… I thought you were mad, or scared, or that you didn’t want to be with me anymore… I mean, you just ran away. You didn’t even say ‘no’ or anything,” Vinyl said, looking away, just a hint of bitterness in her voice.

Octavia grimaced. “Honestly, hon, I handled that horribly. My mind sort of shut off after you said that… that you wanted to marry me.”

Vinyl winced. She was mad, she was angrier with Octavia than she ever thought she would be. However, she knew she had brought this on herself.

“I’ve been thinking about it. Pretty much constantly, actually,” Octavia continued,” and… and I have come to a decision. Vinyl Scratch, I-” A hoof covered her mouth.

“It’s ok, Tavi. You can say no. I… I love you enough to marry you, but I know it’s way too fast and if you’re not comfortable with it, that’s fine. I was just… I was so mad, that I hadn’t been there for you. All I want is to be there for you when you need me. You don’t need me as your wife. I understand.”

“Vinyl, what I was going to say was ‘not yet.’”

“Whaddya mean, Tavi?”

“I mean not yet. I would be perfectly happy to marry you, Vinyl, but… later. When we get off this Celestia-forsaken island. We can get a place together, make sure it’s not stress driving us together, and then… then, I will gladly be your wife.”

For Vinyl Scratch, that was as good as a ‘yes.’ Her hooves, still enveloping the cellist, squeezed tightly, trapping Octavia in a rib-crushing hug.

“Oh, thank you, thank you so much Octavia. You’re perfect, beautiful, you’re everything… I just…”

“Can’t breath.”

Vinyl quickly released Octavia, who wasted not a second gasping for air, and inhaled deeply, before clamping her lips over her lovers. The kiss was not chaste, tongues and bodies entwined as the pair lost themselves to a lust born of the truest of loves. This time it was Vinyl who pulled away, mouth open, a thin, immodest trail of saliva leading to the hot, panting mare lying atop her. Vinyl blushed, and Octavia smiled.

“Oh, I’ve missed this. It’s been, what, two whole days now that we’ve gone without having sex? I think we should make up for that,” Octavia’s voice was husky and practically radiated desire for the mare between her rear legs. She didn’t give Vinyl a chance to object.

Three and a half hours later, Vinyl lay atop Octavia, in a puddle of sweat, saliva, and other fluids, panting heavily and completely spent.

“Oh… oh Celestia Tavi… that… was the best…” Vinyl managed to spit out between breaths.

“We… need to do that… a lot more often…” Octavia gasped, pulling her mouth off of Vinyl’s horn.

“Y… yeah… wash?”

“Vinyl… if we went to the lake now… you know exactly what would happen.”

“Heh, yeah, I do. That’s why we should go.”

Struggling to her hooves, Vinyl pulled her marefriend to hers, and the two began unsteadily making their way to the lake.

Half an hour later, not counting the multiple hours spent on other activities, both mares found themselves clean and content, but very tired. Not that either of them minded, though. Vinyl had officially given up on maintaining her mane, and simply let it hang down over her neck and shoulders, Octavia once again marveling at the length hidden in the frizzy locks.

“Oh, Vinyl… I love you so… but what are we going to do on this island?” Octavia asked. “Aside from the obvious, of course,” she added, with a playful nibble on the DJ’s ear.

“Besides each other? I… really don’t know. As long as we’re together, though? We’ll figure something out. I just know we will.”

“What if no one ever comes for us, though? It’s been a whole week. Certainly Celestia has had to call of the Pegasus search teams for now. I mean, what are the odds of finding survivors from a shipwreck in the middle of the ocean after an entire week. What if we have to stay here until we die?”

“Then we will, Tavi. Is it optimal? Hell no, I want off this island as much as you do. I, however, would rather be on this island, with you, without magic, than off this island, with magic, without you. I’m not sure if you’d trade the world for me, but I know I’d trade the world for you, Octavia. Literally, at least.” Vinyl said with a grin and a chuckle.

Octavia smiled, momentarily losing herself in her marefriend’s eyes. Those big, ruby-red irises mirroring the love in the white mare’s heart. She really is so beautiful, Octavia thought.

“Hey Tavi?”

“Yes, love?”

“I love you.”

Something about how she said it stuck out to Octavia. It wasn’t the overjoyed, enthusiastic, reply-begging ‘I love you’ kind that Vinyl usually said. It was… calm, earnest. It sounded… it sounded like how her mother had said it to her father. It was the ‘I love you’ of a pony so completely given over to her lover that she didn’t need to express it with every word and action. Octavia was struck speechless by those three simple words, those three words she’d heard so many times from this white mare in the past week. Somehow, this time, right now, meant more than all the times she’d said it, or heard it said before – because this time, it was directed at her.

Vinyl Scratch smiled, knowingly. “It’s ok, Tavi. You don’t have to say it back. I know you love me too.”

With Celestia as my witness, I will bear this mare’s foals. Some day. Some how. I will find a way and I will gladly let it happen. I love her so much.

“Oh, Tavi? Would you mind… umm… playing your cello?” Vinyl asked, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head and blushing.

“You… we just had sex for six hours and you… you’re embarrassed to ask me to play my cello,” Octavia deadpanned.

“Umm… yeah?” Vinyl offered, still blushing.

“You confuse me sometimes, Vinyl. But I would gladly play a song or two for you,” Octavia said, trying to stifle a giggle. “Come on, let’s get back to the cave. I’m not expecting the acoustics to be that great, but my cello should sound nice nonetheless.”

As it turned out, the cave had decent acoustics. Not compared to say, a concert hall, but for a cave? It sounded rather nice. The sound echoed in an interesting manner, giving the music a rich, live noise. Octavia played from memory and improvised, with Vinyl sitting in front of her, eyes closed as she let the sounds take her. The expert cellist played happy tunes, quick, light-hearted ditties, and sad songs, solemn melodies filled with passion and sorrow. One of the things that Vinyl most admired about Octavia’s skill was her ability to play flawlessly even with her eyes closed. As the final note Octavia played finished its reverberations, she sighed, and a single tear fell from her eye. Before she could wipe it away herself, a hoof met her cheek, smearing the wetness. Her eyes opened, and she saw Vinyl smiling back at her.

“That was beautiful, Tavi. Thank you. I loved it. I love you.”

There it is again. That… that way she says she loves me. It… it changed. It’s… her saying that… is wonderful. It’s a feeling I never want to lose.

“Y-you’re welcome, Vinyl,” Octavia stammered.

“What’s the matter, Tavi?”

“I… I don’t know, Vinyl. Something changed, in the way you say ‘I love you.’ It doesn’t have that same unbridled joy at being able to tell me that. Now, when you say it… it has more of an honest contentedness to it. Whenever you say it… you say it like we’ve known each other all our lives.”

“Nothing’s changed in how I say it. Maybe something’s changed in how you hear it?”

“I… I don’t know. I like it, though. No, I love it. I love hearing it, and I love you Vinyl. Thank you, thank you for everything.”

“Hey, I can’t wipe tears away this fast. You’re welcome, Tavi, always. Just stop crying, ok?”

Octavia sniffled and nodded. “Ok.”