Second Chances II: Love and Courage

Second Chances II: Love and Courage
By Hero541
Chapter 23: Don’t Back Down

Vinyl sat outside Josh’s cell three days later, chatting idly with her human lover. Since their night together, both were completely inseparable again, Vinyl even managing to stay overnight once thanks to Warden providing a cot for her. The morning after their special night, when Warden came in to check on them, he couldn’t help but smile and chuckle a little to himself upon seeing them pressed so closely together in their sleep. He told Josh that even though he loved his own wife like nothing else in all of Equestria, he couldn’t ever sleep that closely to her.
Vinyl was finishing up telling Josh all about what she and Octavia had been up to in his absence when the door creaked open and three little fillies ran in, accompanied by Applejack and Rarity.

“Hey Joshie!” called the Cutie Mark Crusaders, rushing up to his cell and beaming up at him.

“Hey there girls.” he said happily, kneeling down and reaching through the bars of his cell, gently rubbing each filly’s soft mane, “How’re you three?”

“We’re great!” said Scootaloo excitedly, fluttering her wings.

“Well, hey there, Vinyl.” said Applejack, smiling at the cream colored unicorn, “Ah didn’t know you were out and about now.”

Rarity lightly kicked the orange farm pony who yelped and glared at her.

“What the hay was that for?”

“That was highly inappropriate to say!” retorted Rarity, returning Applejack’s glare, “You make it seem as if she’s some sort of overly depressed shut in.”

Applejack was about to respond when Vinyl just giggled a little. Both mares looked to the unicorn, who simply smiled at them.

“It’s alright, Rares.” she said, her smile never faltering, “I understand what AJ means. Yeah, I was a bit of a shut in for a while there.”

“Why didn’t you come to see Joshie before?” asked Apple Bloom, cocking her head in confusion.

“Well, Apple Bloom,” began Vinyl, turning her attention towards the three fillies, “I was very depressed and lonely without Josh. I didn’t come to check on him because I didn’t want to see him suffer through the same pain I was dealing with.”

She looked towards her human, her smile widening and her eyes twinkling, “But, I realized that the reason I was so lonely was because I was without him. I love him more than words can say, and that alone made me want to get out and make him feel better.”

She looked back to the three Crusaders, who were all smiling widely at her. Josh looked to his mare, feeling a warmth rise in his chest. A huge smile creeped across his face that rivaled her own. I love you too, Vinyl.

“Makes sense to me.” said Sweetie Belle, turning back to Josh and continuing to beam up at him.

“Sweetie,” said Rarity, drawing the attention of the filly, “didn’t you three have something for our friend here?”

“Oh!” exclaimed Sweetie, looking to the other two Crusaders before pulling a large sheet of paper from her saddlebag and unfolding it.

The three fillies held it in their mouths and presented it to their human friend. On the paper was a rather crude drawing depicting Josh and Vinyl standing side by side, huge smiles on their faces, along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders surrounding them. On the top of the drawing was a line of text saying “Josh and Vinyl”.

“We made it for you when we were at school today!” said Scootaloo, her wings fluttering excitedly again, “Do you like it?”

Josh knelt down in front of the fillies, his eyes beginning to well up and water a little as he looked at the picture again. It always amazed him how the innocence of these three little girls could put things in perspective for him. No matter what, no matter where he was, whether it was out there or in a jail cell, they would always love him unconditionally, just like Vinyl. Their care for him was unbiased and genuine, never faltering for even the most minuscule amount of time. At that moment, Josh couldn't help but wish to be able to hold the three Crusaders closely and return their love in full measure.

“It’s wonderful, girls.” he finally said, wiping his eyes a little as he felt a lump form in his throat, “Thank you so much.”

Vinyl walked up behind the three fillies and extended her forelegs around them all, wrapping them up in a close embrace and lightly kissing each one of them on the forehead.

“Thank you very much for helping take care of my Joshie, girls.” she said as they turned around and continued to hug the mare, “It means more than I can ever say.”

“You’re welcome, Vinyl.” they all said, releasing their grip on her and continuing to smile up at the unicorn.

Josh heard a few small sniffles from nearby and looked over to the other two mares to see them both beginning to cry. Applejack had removed her hat and was wiping a few tears from her face as she looked upon the touching scene. Rarity had a wide smile on as she looked to her sister and her friends before managing a glance at Josh. As everypony relished the moment, the door leading out of the cell block opened and all eyes flew to it. The expressions of happiness that were all around vanished as soon as a figure made his way inside, quickly being replaced with anger and indignation.

Filthy Rich sauntered in, his usual smug look in place and seeming as strong as ever. Behind him trailed Warden, who glanced apologetically at the human in the cell.

“You!” shouted Rarity, glaring hard at the stallion, “What the buck are you doing here?!”

“Now now, Rarity,” said Filthy, his expression never changing as he looked towards the ivory unicorn mare, “is that any way to speak in front of children like these three?”

“Says the damn hate monger in this town!” retorted Applejack, advancing towards Filthy slightly, “Besides, they’re bound to hear it eventually.”

“Around you, I would imagine so.” said Filthy, his smirk never dropping.

“What’s that s’posed to mean?!” yelled the farm pony, removing her hat as her ears flattened against her head.

“Applejack.” said Josh simply, drawing the attention of the mare, “Don’t.”

“B-but...” said AJ, turning to the human.

Her words died in her throat as she looked into his eyes. They weren't angry, but were extremely serious, and caused the farm pony to abandon her quarrel with Filthy almost right away. She placed her hat back on her head and made for the door.

“Come on, Rares.” she said as she made her way out, “Grab the kids and let’s get outta here.”

“Josh...” Rarity began, looking towards her friend to see what he would say or do.

“It’s alright, Rarity.” he said, his gaze softening a little, “Just leave us for a little bit. I don’t know what’ll go down right now, but I do know that the girls don’t need to be subjected to this.”

Rarity continued to stare at the human for a while longer before lightly nodding and gesturing for the three fillies to follow her.

“Hold up.” said Apple Bloom, rolling up the drawing and grabbing it in her mouth, “Here you go, Joshie. Keep it.”

Josh smiled and took the paper, patting Apple Bloom on the head as she turned around to look at Filthy.

“Ah don’t know why you hate him so much,” she said, causing Filthy to raise his eyebrows a little, “but for as badly as you’ll ever treat him, we’ll love him that much more.”

With that, the yellow filly followed her sister and friends out of the door, leaving just Filthy, Josh, and Vinyl alone in the cell block.

“Well,” began Filthy, scratching the back of his neck uncertainly, “That was... unexpected.”

“Don’t jerk me around.” said Josh, glaring down at the stallion, “What’re you doing here?”

“You like to get right down to business, don’t you?” said Filthy, his smirk returning, “I like that. Probably the one thing about you that I’ve ever liked.”

“You fucking jackass!” shouted Vinyl, advancing on the stallion, her ears pinned back and a look of complete rage on her cream colored face, “Because of you, my coltfriend has been gone from me for a week, and we’ve both been completely miserable! How dare you show your fucking face around here after all that!”

“It’s hardly my fault that he decided to attack me like that, now is it?” replied Filthy, prompting a small lunge from Vinyl, “And if you dare to do the same as him, I’ll see to it that you both end up in that cell.”

“Don’t give me even more of an incentive.” she snarled back at him.

Filthy didn’t even flinch at her statement, instead turning to look at the human.

“I’ve come to have a pleasant little chat with you.” he said, taking a seat in front of the iron bars and staring at Josh, “After all, we didn’t have much time to really speak to one another at the hearing, now did we?”

Josh continued to stare at the stallion, prompting him to continue. He did just that, smirking the whole time.

“As you’re well aware, almost this entire town has begun to see things my way regarding you.” he began, standing and beginning to pace back and forth, “A lot of them were once your closest friends and neighbors.”

“If this is just gonna be a session for you to remind me of all this shit, then you can make for the door right now.” said Josh, his glare intensifying.

“Very well then.” said Filthy, stopping his pacing and returning his gaze towards Josh, “I’ll get more to the point.”

Filthy continued his pacing once more, “The justice system in Equestria is based on popular support in the case of the defendant.” he said, “A jury can make a decision, but if the general population doesn’t agree with it, then it can be overturned.”

Filthy looked back to Josh and smirked again, “And I wouldn’t much count on you being able to gain a lot of support right now.”

“It’d help if you’d stop forcing such hate on everypony here!” snapped Vinyl, causing Filthy to look to her once more.

“I may have... interfered a little in this matter.” he said, waving a hoof dismissively, “However, I by no means forced anypony to turn on him. They made the choice freely and willingly based on the evidence I presented to them.”

“You have no evidence!” said Vinyl, intensifying her angry glare towards him, “It’s all hearsay!”

“I have more evidence than you can hope to know.” replied Filthy, returning the mare’s glare in full measure.

Vinyl was about to retort when she felt a hand on her back. She turned to see Josh looking down at her, a small smile on his face. The unicorn looked into his bright blue eyes, seeing concern for her etched into them. She sat once more and allowed Josh to speak.

“Did you just come down here to tell me that my situation’s hopeless?” he asked, “Because if that’ the case, I already know and you’ve wasted your obviously precious time.”

“Au contraire, my friend,” said Filthy, looking up at the human, “I’ve come to you with a proposal that may save you a lot of time and trouble.”

Josh said nothing, instead simply nodding to Filthy to continue.

“I’ll drop the charges, I’ll let you go free, I’ll even tell the mobs to calm down and not lay a single hoof on you. I’ll do all this for you, but only under one condition.”

“What condition?” asked Josh, beginning to perk up a little at Filthy’s words.

A devilish grin came over Filthy’s face as he spoke once more.

“If I do this for you, you have to leave Ponyville forever. And she can’t go with you.”

He pointed a hoof to Vinyl, who immediately burst at hearing his words.

“How dare you!” she screamed, doing her absolute best to not lunge at the stallion, “You fucking bastard! What’s your fucking problem?! Do you really think Josh would just leave me like that?!”

She turned back to her human, tears in her eyes as she pressed her hooves against the bars of his cell.

“You won’t leave me again, will you?”

Josh felt his heart sink at her words and her expression. Gently he knelt before her and reached his hand through the bars, stroking her mane as tears fell freely from her eyes.

“I’m never gonna lose you again, Vinyl.” he said, gently lifting her chin so she could look him in the eyes, “I promised you that when I came back, and I intend to keep it, no matter what, okay?”

She pressed a hoof to his hand on her cheek, a small smile forming on her face. Josh looked back up to Filthy, glaring heavily at him once more.

“Let me explain something to you, Filthy.” he began, having a hard time controlling his voice from his anger at the stallion, “I don’t know if you know how love works, so I’ll give you a little introduction here. When you love someone, truly love someone with all your heart, you’ll do anything for them, and no bribe or empty promise like the one you brought to me today can ever make you want to leave them. This mare means more to me than I can ever hope to say, and if I have to stay in a jail cell just to stay around her, then I’ll do it for the rest of my life, no questions asked.”

Josh knelt down to console Vinyl once more, his gaze never breaking from the pompous pony who had landed him in there.

“So, now that I’ve established that fact,” he said continuing to stroke Vinyl’s mane, “you can take your proposal for me and shove it firmly up your tight ass. I’m not taking any deal if it means I can’t be with her.”

“You are the biggest idiot in all of Equestria!” said Filthy, stamping his hooves angrily, “How in the name of Celestia can you be so dense?!”

“Don’t you have a family of your own?” asked Josh, “A wife and daughter? Wouldn’t you make the same choice for them? Or are you such a spiteful fuck that you’d throw them away if you had the chance to escape from trouble?”

“That... I... That’s irrelevant!” spluttered Filthy, his smirk finally dropping and his anger boiling over, “This isn’t about me, you jackass! It’s about you and the possibility for you to have a future outside this damn cell!”

“Fucking drop it!” shouted Vinyl, turning back to Filthy as tears continued to flow freely, “He said he’s not taking your bullshit deal! Now get the fuck outta here, before I make you leave.”

Filthy just huffed and turned around, storming out the door. Before he made his way out, he turned back to the two lovers.

“You’ll regret this action. Both of you will.” he sneered, before turning back around and heading back out.

Warden followed close behind, winking at Josh as he closed the door. The human looked down to his still crying marefriend and reached both his arms all the way through, holding her as closely as he could, gently shushing her as she continued to cry.

“It’s alright now, baby.” he whispered to her, “It’s alright.”

“J-Josh?” she said, lifting her head up a little and sniffling, looking at her lover with watery, swollen eyes, “W-why d-does he hate you s-so much? Why?!”

She buried her head in his arms as best she could once more.

“I don’t know, baby.” he replied, stroking her mane and back once again, “but nothing he could ever do or say would make me want to leave you behind. Not even if it means I’ll get out of here.”

“I love you so much, Joshie.” she said, looking up again and wiping her tears away, “Always know that. No matter what happens, I’ll never stop loving you. You’re my whole world.”

“I love you too, Vinyl. And that’ll never ever change.”

Together, the two just sat there, Josh still managing to awkwardly hold his marefriend through the bars of his cell. The human thought all about Filthy, and what he had said when he was there. Do your worst, you spiteful fuck he thought, anger building up in his chest at the thought of the stallion Because no matter what you throw at me, I’ll be ready for it.