Author's Notes:

From this chapter on, the story is a retelling from the alternative path, of Sam falling for Vinyl instead. Expect much different feels.

Foreword: It is odd, isn't it? How a slight change can alter some big things over the course of time. For instance: stepping on a butterfly can alter an election happening 65 million years into the future. On a fateful night, a small change occurred, and because of it a new story is born. Now let us return to a familiar scene, and see what a small change can do:

We arrive at my home with the escort of two of Captain Armor's personal guards, who would be waiting outside to subdue Vinyl in case I am right but unable to stop her. She had, the whole trip home, just stared blankly ahead, occasionally moving her head to look at me. Not a moment after the door of my home closes, she runs up and starts to strangle me. I notice that she's using her hands, not her magic, to do so, meaning that she isn't thinking clearly. I quickly take the item I received from Captain Armor and put it on her horn. She immediately feels weaker and I'm able to, rather easily, push her into sitting on my couch with Octavia. She glares daggers at me the entire time. After a few minutes she finally talks.

"Why? Why do you hate me so much? First you make me fall in love with you, then you deny me, and now that I finally found a guy to share myself with you ruin everything. Why do you hate me so much?"

"Vinyl, I don't hate you. If I did, I would have left you with him or had you dragged off to prison as well."

"Bullshit, you don't care about me!"

"Vinyl, please, you don't know what is going on --"

"Shut up you fucking pig!" That does it: I had tried to remain calm, but even the Vicodin won't calm me down anymore.

"You don't know what you are talking about!" I say as I start to raise my voice.

"Oh really, and why should I believe you? What gives you the right to tell me what that was!"

"Because I lived it!" That gets her attention. She immediately stops struggling, with Octavia joining in staring at me with absolute shock. "I lived that nightmare for three years before I got rescued, just like you are now. I was trapped, I couldn't get out. Through psychology and secretly drugging me I was manipulated. When I finally snapped out of it I had lost everything." I let myself go; my tirade is going to reveal my entire past to these two mares, and I don't care.

"I met her one day at a friend's party. She was beautiful, intelligent, funny; everything you could want in someone, she had it. After a few months of dating I trusted her blindly. I hadn't realized that she had started to drug me. I quickly started losing everything. I might have been saved, but mom had passed away not too long beforehand. Meanwhile, my 'girlfriend' started to increase the drugs she was giving me and demeaning me. I was like a lost little puppy that followed her every beck and call. My brother had tried to get to me, but she kept me from getting free, from seeing what she was doing to me. She kept him from succeeding. That bitch even kept me from going to my own concerts and graduation ceremony. I was quickly disowned from the family after my sister blamed mom's death on me."

Taking a breath I walk back over to my chair and sit down. Neither Octavia nor Vinyl had moved since I had started my tirade, but it's over yet. "I started to look more and more like an addict. Police even started to search me for drugs before and after concerts. Eventually, I stopped getting concerts. Then it happened: my brother, now a police officer, had succeeded in finding a definitive link between my girlfriend and my situation. He got a warrant for her arrest, and I was given the lovely title of victim. She had destroyed me. I literally could not live without her." I start to break up, my tirade turning from anger to sorrow.

"It still took me three months to finally realize that she had used me. She had completely destroyed who I was. The scars still to this day prevent me from falling in love or seeking a relationship. It was a full year after my release that the first sign of the portals started to appear. My reputation was so thoroughly destroyed by her that I was unable to get any decent jobs. The best that I could hope for was to get just a few jobs enough to afford a bottom level apartment. Even today, I still have to go get psychologically tested to make sure that I don't fall back into the old patterns. I still feel the effects and I may never recover. Constantly haunted from a past that I had no control over. I know what I saved you from, and I wouldn't change what I did if you did kill me for it!"

My tirade done, I fall to my knees and just cry. All the pain, all the emotion, simply out there for these two mares to take in and know. I feel arms wrap around me, pulling me into a hug. Seeing black I understand it's Octavia, with Vinyl soon joining in and saying she's sorry. A knock from the guards at the door pulls us back to reality. I take the ring off of Vinyl's horn and give it to the guard, saying we would take Vinyl to rehab the next day. Since she's a victim, she is asked to give a testimony before the court as well. That night, we decide to stay at my place because none of us are emotionally strong enough to be able to go anywhere.

As I reach for the door to my room, I hear a small shuffle of hooves behind me. Looking back, I see Vinyl standing there, waiting to ask a question she thinks she already knows the answer to. After a moment of silence, she speaks up.

"Sam, d'you mind if I sleep with you? I don't want to do anything special, but I think you will do a better job of comforting me than Octy can." Judging from what we have been through, I can assume she is being truthful, and it's not like I haven't been there. Looking around I spot Octavia resting against a nearby wall.

"I guess I will look after her tonight. So long as she promises no funny business." As Vinyl nods I think I can see a slight tinge of irritation go through Octavia, which is odd considering she is normally so calm and collected, but it has been a stressful night. It is then that I hear her speak.

"Alright, I will see the two of you in the morning. And please, do get some sleep instead of anything else, we need it the most right now." At this she turns and walks away, missing the crimson cheeks of Vinyl and myself. As she enters the guest room I calm myself and look back to Vinyl. I motion to the door and we enter my room, which is surprisingly plain. The walls are a light blue, the sheets on the twin sized bed are deep red in contrast. By the bed are two nightstands, one on each side. There is a single dresser and a small chest. The chest has been empty for years and was here when I first moved in. I never used it, but it seemed to add character to the room, so I left it. There's a single window in the room that faced towards the castle to the south.

Right now though, I realize a rather odd problem: Tavi is now sleeping in the room where Vinyl's sleeping clothes are, meaning that she's either sleeping in what she came in, or she's going to sleep in her underwear. As I turn around, I am greeted by the sight of Vinyl in my bed, her usual pants and shirt lying at the foot of it, and her trademark sunglasses on a night stand. I take a moment to breathe in deep before slipping into my closet. Vinyl may be in her underwear, but I should still have my red, wool pj's for those cold nights. Slipping into them, I remind myself that Vinyl had been the one to suggest I get some in the first place. The thought brings a smile to my face as I finish dressing. I exit and see Vinyl watching the closet. Normally I would expect a remark of some kind, but the look in her eyes tells me all she wants is my company, and nothing more.

As I get to the bed she makes plenty of room until I am under the sheets. At that point she quickly snuggles into me, before closing her eyes. She barely says an audible thanks before she falls into a deep slumber. How she can fall into such a deep sleep so quickly is beyond me. It seems like something out of some cheap romance or something. It is then that I look down and see her sleeping face. Compared to her previous attitude, she is completely calm and at ease. I can't help but think of her as amazingly cute at this moment. Then an old thought re-enters my mind: maybe it is time I gave a relationship another try. Not yet though, Vinyl needs to recover first. Maybe I will make it an incentive to clear her rehabilitation. Before I can think any further, I feel Vinyl shift her body even more into mine, the feeling of her being so close, and the content look on her sleeping face is all I need to see to understand something. As the realization barrels through me, I can only help but think to myself a simple phrase.

'I think, that if it is with these two mares, I may be able to move on.'