Octavia was feeling just a little bit frantic right now. This was reflected by how her hooves flew across the ground as she raced through Ponyville. Several ponies flung themselves out of her path as she tore through the town, and many chose to send a few choice words her way as they fell into the dirt.

Going to Princess Twilight did not turn out the way she’d hoped. Instead of Vinyl already being at the castle with a quick-fix style remedy, the only one there was a dragon who claimed Vinyl had stopped by earlier only to leave. Apparently it was to find the pony who made the potion, but that didn’t really matter to Octavia right now. Vinyl had just taken her body off to some unknown location to converse with some unknown pony, without even telling her!

“I swear, the next time I see her I’m going to—”

“Hey, Tavi! There you are!” Octavia skidded to a halt at the sound of her voice. Turning, she saw Vinyl — or rather, Vinyl in her body, which still wasn’t any less disturbing to her — running up.

“—throttle her,” Octavia finished.

“What was that?” Vinyl asked, trotting the last few steps up to her.

Octavia felt every muscle in her body tense up as she did her best to keep from leaping at Vinyl and attacking her in frenzy. She might not have been able to resist if Vinyl wasn’t currently in her body. At the very least, Octavia was going to give her a chance to explain herself. “Oh nothing. So, where have you been?”

Vinyl’s smile evaporated as she realized how angry Octavia was. Knowing she was trotting on thin ice, she chose her next words carefully. “Want some cider?”

A half-empty mug of cider pushed its way into Octavia’s field of vision. She swatted it to the ground.

“Hey!”

“Considering the last time you offered me cider, I think I’ll pass.” Octavia narrowed her eyes and prepared to bombard Vinyl with a mixture of scolding and questioning. Vinyl opened her mouth first.

“Considering the last time I gave you cider we switched bodies, I figured you’d be overjoyed when I offered you this.”

Octavia froze, and her eyes darted down to the amber liquid currently being absorbed by the dirt. “A-are you telling me that was the antidote to switch us back?”

“What?” Vinyl asked as she bent over to retrieve the mug. “No, I was just trying to prove a point. If last time it was a body-switching potion, you should have—” Octavia slapped her. “Ow!”

“You’re insufferable!” Octavia fumed. Vinyl stood upright, rubbing the back of her head and cringing. “What have you got to say for yourself?”

“Uh… my body sure hits harder than yours does, that’s for sure.”

Octavia’s brow lowered. “I do not have the time, nor the patience to put up with this, Vinyl. Please tell me you’ve made at least some headway in the search for the cure.”

“Well… there’s some bad news, good news, kinda shitty news, better news, and then definitely shitty news. Which do you want to hear first?”

Sighing, Octavia shook her head. “If you could stop using profanity with my voice, like I asked you to, then I would prefer for you to start with the bad news.” She glanced around, noting that ponies were still ambling about. It was around noon, so the flow wouldn’t be letting up anytime soon. “But… perhaps we should do so at home. Where we are less likely to be thrown in a madhouse.”

Vinyl rolled her eyes. “All right, sure, let’s go. Oh, and you gotta let me know how it went with Rarity.”

Octavia forced a smile. “Absolutely, because clearly that’s where our primary concern lies.” She grabbed Vinyl’s hoof and dragged her along.

“Scootaloo?” Apple Bloom yelled out. No response. The streets of Ponyville were relatively packed. Several ponies shuffled about, going through the motions of daily life. Apple Bloom, however, was not partaking in her usual routine. In fact, trying to find her drunk friend in the crowded market place before said drunk friend got a hold of a jackhammer to kill fictional Diamond Dogs was pretty outside the norm for her. She would expect something like this to happen when she was twenty-two, not twelve.

“Scootaloo!” she called out again. No response. “Come on where are you?”

At first she had assumed Scootaloo would be at the hardware store. It seemed like the most logical place for one to go when one was looking for a jackhammer. When that turned out to be a bust, Apple Bloom realized that Scootaloo would’ve gone there, but Drunkenloo was a different story. There was no way she would be following any sort of logical reasoning.

With this in mind, Apple Bloom scoured the marketplace for anything that a drunk might confuse for a jackhammer. It took a while, but she finally was able to use this reasoning to track down Scootaloo yelling at the dumpster behind Quills and Sofas.

“For the twelve-teenth time, I’ll only give you six bits for the jackhammer. Take it or leave it, bucko.” The garbage offered no response. “I told you I’m not trying to haggle, you little shit. Six bits or not at all.”

“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom ran up to her friend, ecstatic to have found her.

In a drunken daze, Scootaloo turned her head. “Apple Bloom?” She then looked next her. “You never told me you had a twin!”

“Huh?”

Scootaloo pointed to the empty space next to Apple Bloom. “Your twin. Right there! It’s almost like I’m seeing double.”

“Ah’m pretty sure ya are seein’ double,” Apple Bloom said flatly.

“What’s 'er name?”

“Scootaloo, Ah don't...” Apple Bloom thought about arguing over the existence of her nonexistent twin, and decided to just roll with it for now. “Her name is... Apple Fedupwiththiscrap.”

Scootaloo pursed her lips together. “Cool name.”

“Yes, it’s amazin’. Now come with me back ta the clubhouse; ya gotta stop runnin’ ‘round town like a chicken with its head cut off. If somepony sees ya actin' all drunk like, ya could end up in jail.”

Blinking slowly and propping herself up against the dumpster, Scootaloo grunted. “Did you just call me a chicken?”

Apple Bloom groaned. “Just come on already.”

“All right, all right. Chill out. Just let me grab my scooter.” Scootaloo moved behind the dumpster for a second and returned with her scooter in tow.

Apple Bloom blinked. “When did ya pick that up?”

Scootaloo looked down, looked back up, and thought about it. “I can’t remember.” She climbed onto it and prepared to push off.

“Uh… should ya really be drivin’ that thing while you’re drunk?”

Scootaloo shrugged. “What’s the worst that could happen?” She kicked off the ground, and launched herself into metal frame of the dumpster.

“That,” she replied.

“Shut up, Apple Fedupwiththiscrap!”

“Yeah, sure,” Apple Bloom said. “I’m fed up with this crap, all right.” She lifted her friend up, and dragged her across the ground back towards the clubhouse.

Vinyl sat reclined in the kitchen, her chair tipped back, and her hind legs resting on their dining table. As Octavia poured what precious little remained of the apple cider into a short champagne glass, she glanced over and frowned.

“Please get you hooves off the table, Vinyl. They’re filthy.”

Begrudgingly moving her legs down, she replied. “You know, technically they’re your filthy hooves, Tavi.”

“Well then keep my filthy hooves off the table.” She paused, and then shook her head while Vinyl snickered. Octavia made her way over to the table, and took the open chair near Vinyl. “So, according to this filly — Apple Bloom, right? — the potion was incomplete, which is the reason why we haven’t swapped back yet?”

“Yes.” Vinyl reached for the glass of cider, but Octavia swatted her hoof away and took a sip herself. Pouting slightly, Vinyl folded her forelegs and leaned back in her chair.

“And Princess Twilight will likely be unavailable for the rest of the week?”

“Yep.”

“And the only one who can help us is the zebra whom you keep referring to as Pothole Lady?”

“You’ve seen her!” Vinyl exclaimed. “Every time she comes to town she always stops in the middle of the road and digs a hole! I’ve tripped in those things like eight times by now.”

“Right… I’m just going to assume you mean Zecora.”

“Yeah, right. Anyway, I told Apple Bloom we’d meet her at Pothole Lady’s house in an hour, and that was about…” Vinyl glanced at the nearest clock dangling from the wall. “…twenty-ish minutes ago.”

Octavia blinked, as Vinyl had neglected to mention this earlier. “Do you have any idea where Zecora lives?”

“The Everfree Forest… I think.” Vinyl pursed her lips together and looked at the ceiling. She appeared to be in deep thought, but Octavia knew that to be impossible. “Yeah… Everfree Forest.”

“And you don’t think that’s just a little vague?”

“Well, er… probably. Look, we have plenty of time to find it.” She leaned forward, relaxed demeanor turning serious all of a sudden. “Right now, there is something very important I need to ask you.”

Octavia raised an eyebrow, nonplussed. “Which is?”

Vinyl cleared her throat. “How did it go with Rarity?”

Groaning, Octavia slapped her forehead.

“Oh, that bad, huh?” Vinyl reclined again, sighing slightly. “Yeah, I figured you’d have a hard time flirting; it’s not your strong suit.”

“Okay, first of all, this isn’t something we need to worry about right now. I think we should be more concerned with getting back into our bodies!”

Vinyl gave a short nod. “Valid.”

“Secondly, it actually went fairly well between me and Rarity. She even plans on attending your performance at Club Stirrup tonight.”

Vinyl’s eyes bulged out to the size of dinner plates. “What?”

Octavia wryly smiled. It felt good to shatter Vinyl’s expectations and leave her jaw unhinged. Not that she was particularly proud of flirting with one of her friends, but not much she can do about it now. “Oh yes, Vinyl. I managed to get you a date. You're wel—”

“I completely blanked on my DJ-ing gig!” Vinyl screamed. Her eyes darted to the nearest clock, and she hyperventilated. “Oh crap, it’s in less than eight hours! We gotta get that cure now!” She rocketed out of her chair, and pointed to the door. “To Pothole Lady’s house!”

“Yeah, wherever that is.” Vinyl didn’t hear Octavia’s muttered quip, however. She was already clamoring out the front door. “Hey! Wait for me!”

Author's Notes:

This chapter was either going to be slightly shorter than most, or it was going to be more than double the length of most, considering I might have wanted to fit in the part where they go to Zecora for a cure. I settled with shorter, so I'll be writing the rhymes in the next chapter, along with some other stuff.