As Octavia stepped out of her room, she glanced down the hall and saw that the door to the guest room was left slightly ajar. They typically kept that shut tight… Without thinking, she stepped over, her black house coat flowing around her as she went, and gently pushed the door open without a sound. This revealed to her a nearly naked Roma, clad in nothing but a pair of red briefs.

The door decided that it didn’t like Octavia sneaking around her own home, and creaked as it came to a stop.

Roma spun around and held his BB revolver up at Octavia. Before he did, though, she got a very good look at his back. It was laden with a number of horrendous scars that continued all the way down to the middle of his thighs. His front wasn’t much better off, with long, thin scars crisscrossing all over it. She counted twelve on the back and eight on the front.

“Oh, it’s you,” he said coldly, before tossing his gun onto the bed. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s alright,” She said warmly, stepping in and closing the door behind her. “I can see why you’d want to keep them hidden.”

Roma chuckled and pulled his pants on. “Yeah… They’re pretty gruesome, huh?”

“Quite. How did you get them?”

“Mostly knife fighting with Jackie. First to land a hit won, and the other had to stitch their self back up.” He paused for a moment, running his right middle finger over the longest scar on his chest, right over his heart. “This one almost killed me.”

“And the big one?” She asked, laying a hand on the scar that ran from a few inches above his elbow, over his shoulder, across his shoulder blades, and down under his left arm. “I can’t imagine this was a knife.”

“Nah, I got that when I tripped and knocked over a deep fryer,” he explained, shuddering from Octavia’s cold touch. “Out of school for two weeks.”

“That sounds unpleasant. If you and Applejack fought so much, why did you stay friends?”

“Most people don’t understand, but…” Roma sighed and sat down on the bed. “We fought because we were friends. It’s like dancing, really. Jackie and I knew each other almost perfectly, and we always knew what the other was going to do. It took a while for either of us to even come close to hitting the other.”

“Seems like the fights would get boring…” Octavia interjected, sitting down beside him.

“The idea was to move faster than the other,” he explained, touching one on his abdomen that was only a couple of inches long. “This one was a draw. She’s got one just like it.”

“Did your parents ever find out?”

“Not for a long time. It was only two years ago that Mom, Romany and Dahlia actually saw them.” He paused to let lose a grim chuckle. “They panicked, of course. Dahlia was going to kill Jackie.”

“That’s kind of funny…” Octavia said. She had thought Roma was exaggerating, but no.

He turned to look at her with a scowl. “I’m not kidding. She was literally planning to kill Jackie.”

“She… she wouldn’t have gone through with something like that, would she?”

“Yeah, she would have…” He stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. “Octavia, what I’m about to tell you never leaves this room. It’s the Heart household’s greatest secret.”

Octavia swallowed and turned fully towards Roma. “O-okay… I’ll take it to my grave.”

“See, Dahlia used to be a good old fashioned gypsy-a traveler, I should say. She’s traveled since the day she was born. You’ve never seen her, but she still dresses like she did back then. She wears long skirts and ruffled blouses and keeps her hair tied up with a scarf most times. She’s quite beautiful, really.

“Dahlia is only fifteen, and she’s been with us for six years now…” Roma laced his fingers together and looked at the floor. “I met her once when her caravan stopped in Canterlot to resupply… I think she was five then. When she was seven, her parents tried to sell her off as a harem girl.”

“That’s horrible!”

“It gets worse. They succeeded. Dahlia escaped one year later by killing her so-called master and running off into the night.” Octavia held her hands over her mouth. “She remembered my family and came and begged us to take her in… of course, who where we to deny her sanctuary?” Roma stood and began pacing back and forth. “When she was ten, her parents came back to Canterlot. I met them again. Dahlia refused to see them.”

“I should imagine so!”

“The next day, both her mother and father were found stabbed to death in their wagon, the former holding a scrap of blue cloth in her hand.” Roma stopped and turned to look Octavia square in the eye. “That scrap was from Dahlia’s favorite skirt.”

Octavia’s eyes widened as she realized what that meant. “She… she killed them? At ten years old, she killed her own parents?”

Roma flopped back down beside her and stared at the wall opposite him for a moment. “Yeah,” he said quietly, “she did… My family’s got… issues, Octavia. Most of them are pretty big.”

Octavia closed for a moment and took a deep breath. “I… I can’t say I blame her…” she said, crossing her arms. “Why tell me though? Why not take it to your grave as well?”

“It feels good to share your secrets,” he said simply, grabbing his revolver from behind him. He promptly twirled it on his index finger, smiling as it picked up more speed. “I never really liked having them… but like I said downstairs, everyone does. No way around it, really.” He paused for a moment, pursing his lips, then stopped his revolver against his fingers. “Plus, I kind of see a mirror of myself in you. We’re a lot alike, you and I.”

“I… I see. I suppose it’s my turn to share then?”

“You don’t have to, but it’d be pretty close to fair,” Roma said with a smirk. “I mean, you did see me naked.”

“Mostly! I saw you mostly naked!” she countered, punching him in the shoulder. “And besides, who wears red briefs?”

“Bikini, actually.”

Octavia’s face tinted red. “You wear women’s…”

“They’re men’s.”

“Why?”

“Keeps everything up front, so nothing gets squashed when I hit a bump,” he explained, scratching the back of his head. “I used to wear boxers… but that quickly changed when I got my motorcycle license.”

“I can only imagine…” Octavia said with a pained expression.

“So, what were you going to share?”

“Ah… Well, I suppose it’s no secret that I’m a lesbian.”

“Nope. Not in the slightest.”

“What is a secret… is what that cost me,” she said, scowling at the floor, as though it had wronged her in some way. “I can sympathize somewhat with Dahlia’s plight… I, too, was abandoned by my parents.”

Roma said nothing; he merely stared at the ceiling, listening intently.

“When I was twelve, my parents met my first girlfriend, Beauty Brass… Delightful girl, really. We’re even still in the same ensemble at Discord’s.” Octavia stopped for a moment, a little unnerved by Roma’s silence. “My parents walked in on Beauty and I making out…”

“What happened then?”

“They disowned me… For being a ‘sick, perverted little devil-whore,’ they disowned me and threw me out into the street…” she explained, clenching her hands in her lap. “Beauty’s family was kind and open-minded enough to offer me a place to stay for a while…”

“That doesn’t sound like the end…” Roma said, twirling his gun again.

“That’s because it’s not. When Beauty and I split up, I was given two months to find a new home. I enrolled in an all-girl school in upper Canterlot that had dorms, and worked every day after school to pay my way.”

“Mad props to you.”

“Thank you. That’s where I first met Vinyl… I think you know that bit.”

“Yeah, though I didn’t know that it happened at Saint Morninglight’s. I figured you all went to public school.”

“No… Lyra and Bon Bon both came from well off families and Vinyl… Well, her mother was rich. Of course she went to private school.” Octavia’s eyes widened and she slapped a palm against her forehead. “Shit! That’s supposed to be a secret!

“I already knew,” he said causally, popping the cylinder on his revolver out. “I read her palms and figured it out.” He snapped the cylinder back in and smirked. “I’m kind of awesome like that.”

“Go ahead and boast, jerk,” Octavia said, pushing him away. He countered by bumping his shoulder against hers. “I went to Morninglight’s until I graduated middle school. After that, Vinyl’s mother was kind enough to put her name on the lease for this house. I moved in, and for a while, I was okay. I eventually got rather lonely, and Vinyl moved in with me, with the promise to her mother that I look out for her. When I turned eighteen, she took her name off the lease and I put mine on it.”

“And thus, we arrive here.”

“Indeed.”

“So your life sucked too,” Roma assessed, flipping his gun upside down. He promptly held it out to Octavia. “Here, hold this while I get my shirt on.”

She twisted her hand and wrapped her fingers around the grip. “It’s… heavy…” she said slowly as he let go and her hand drooped from the weight. “But… it feels nice.”

“Well, of course it’s heavy,” Roma teased, sliding into a white t-shirt. “It is solid metal, after all.”

“I honestly had no idea that you could get solid metal BB guns, let alone a revolver…” she said, aiming down the sights. “I like it.”

“Keep it.” Octavia’s head snapped up to Roma, eyes wide with surprise.

“Why? I’m sure this was very expensive…”

“Yeah, but black was never really my color. I like silver better.”

“B-but… It’s…””

“Yours now.”

“I’ve never used one.”

“I’ll teach you.”

“…What if I don’t want it?”

“Too bad.”

“You’re insufferable.”

“So I’m told.”

The two of them shared a brief smile before that smile became a beam, and then they laughed. As friends, they shared a warm hearted laugh and enjoyed one another’s company for the brief time they had before they had to return downstairs.

As they prepared to leave the room, Octavia put a hand on Roma’s shoulder, a small smile on her lips, but her eyes were clearly burdened.

“Before we go down there,” she started quietly, her voice trembling slightly, “make me a promise…”

“Depends on what it is.”

“If… if you and Vinyl…” She paused and bit her lip, struggling to get the words out. “Promise me… you’ll always have her back; that you’ll always be there for her. Promise me that you’ll take care of her when she needs it… Promise me that she will never need to suffer in your companionship…”

“I… I promise, Octavia,” he said solemnly, putting his hand on Octavia’s where it rested on his shoulder. “For now, though, we can both look after her.”

“…Yeah.”

The rapid thump of fists against a punching bag flooded the barn as Applejack vented her frustrations on the training equipment in front of her. How could he? This was the third time he had betrayed her… and now, one of her so-called friends was betraying her too! Because of him!

With a scream, she gave one last punch, sending the two hundred pound bag swinging up to hit the beam it was hung from.

“You know…” Applejack’s head snapped around to see a tall, lanky, feminine figure in the frame of her barn door. “I don’t think anyone would hold it against you if you killed him. I certainly wouldn’t,” the woman said calmly as she stepped into the barn.

“I told ya’ll not to come around here,” Applejack hissed, grabbing her flannel shirt from a hook nearby. “You’re a bad influence on Apple Bloom.”

“But I do so enjoy seeing you stew in your anger like a fool.” The woman side-stepped to avoid being hit be a flying horseshoe.

“Leave,” AJ said coldly, narrowing her eyes at the one she once called a teacher. “NOW!” she screamed, causing the woman to take a step back.

“Very well,” she said, holding up her hands. “But you may like to know, I overheard Roma and the principals saying something about bringing a princess into this world. No idea what that’s ab¬–” She was cut off by a fist impacting her stomach.

“Thank ya kindly for the info… Now get out.”

“Very well,” the woman conceded, turning and staggering away. “Good luck, child.”

As she moved back into the barn, she spotted her reflection in the chrome grill of their tractor. There was a vibrant splash of purple in the abstract image. As she stepped closer, a scowl spread across her lips, but that was quickly replaced by a manic grin.

“Well… That’s new.”

Author's Notes:

Next time, on Roses and Violets: Our heroes prepare for the showdown! The drums of war sound! Roma's ability's are unmasked! Octavia claims a steed and a new skill! Vinyl earns a new friend! Blades shine in the midnight light of the moon! Blood will be shed!

Next time: Rend the Flesh, Part 2!