The Show Can't End So Soon

The next time Octavia peeled her eyes open, it was to Vinyl gently shaking her awake.

"I'm sorry," the unicorn mare whispered, "but I'm so exhausted I'm about to fa-fa-fall out of this tree." Vinyl finished, trying and failing to stifle a yawn.

"It's okay, Vinyl, you need your rest. I'll take this watch." Octavie pulled herself up to where Vinyl had been sitting at looked out across the landscape, watched towns burn in the Endless Night, saw ponies falling from the skies to die or become Zompegasi. She bit back her tears, blinking rapidly, and turned her eyes down to watch Vinyl's breathing even out, her scrunched snout relax, her stomach move slowly, silently, up, down, up, down, up, down….

Tavi isn't sure when she fell asleep, she just knew she awoke once again to Vinyl shaking her awake and a massive bout of guilt.

"It's ok, Tavi, honestly, I don't blame you." Vinyl tried to comfort her friend, "I mean, we both lost friends and family but you've been hit harder than me, and you were exhausted."

"Thanks, Vinyl. I'll try to not do it again." Tavi smiled and wiped her hoof across her face, cleaning it of any remaining tears, "So, breakfast?"

Vinyl grinned, "Thought you'd never ask."

It's getting colder, Tavi thought, shivering in the bitter night air, what if the Princesses never lower the moon again? What if we freeze to death? Octavia shook herself and sidestepped so she'd be closer to Vinyl, desperate for some warmth. She couldn't help but wonder again what that little box Vinyl had held onto was all about, but didn't want to pester her friend. She'd already said she's tell Tavi when the time was right.

Whatever that meant.

Vinyl suddenly huffed and sat down, crossing her hooves in front of her for a moment before flinging them at the sky, "Oh c'mon Princess! For Celestia's sake, raise the damn sun!"

If it was just timing, coincidence, or more, very suddenly the moon began to move, incredibly fast. It soared across the sky and, as it neared the western horizon, suddenly Tavi pulled Vinyl's attention to the east horizon.

Light.

The Princesses were raising the sun.

Vinyl and Tavi danced and laughed, joyful to feel the heat radiating from their sun once again. They felt confident that, not only were the Princesses alive and well enough to do magic, but they hadn't abandoned them. Not yet, anyways.

Not quite yet.

Vinyl trotted next to Tavi by the edge of a forest, basking in the warm glow of daylight, and wondering why things had been so quiet? Like a jynx, suddenly a moan came from the trees and several Zomponies staggered out and lunged at Octavia. She whipped out her knives and, dodging past the Zom's attack, she slashed at the back of the neck where Vinyl had told her the brain stem was, splattering blood across her front and sending the Zompony to the ground.

Vinyl was suddenly at the throats of the second Zom, her sword flying through the air with a blue glow of magic holding it at the base, slashing the beast's head clean off its body with a sickening rrrip. After the first two fell, the two mares turned and lunged for the remaining 4, Tavi flinging a throwing knife at the first one and landing a direct hit in the beasts forehead, the knife sinking into the flesh and bone with a thunk. She then took a butcher's knife from her saddlebag and began to hack into the second Zom, sinking the blade into the Zompony's flesh and bone several time, blood running down the beast's face, until finally Octavia swing down her blade and broke through the thick Zom's skull, shattering its face and sinking her knife deep into the creature's skull, losing her grip on the blade as the beast collapsed. As Tavi yanked out the knives from each of her now dead zoms and cleaned the blades on the grass, she looked over to Vinyl as the mare took down the last of the Zoms.

Vinyl had utilised this opportunity to get more used to the sword, using it for the first kill before reverting back to her bat. Said sword was being pulled out of a Zom's head, and the bat still lay in what used to be a Zom's face, but was now just a beaten pulp of broken skull, blood, and brain. Octavia pulled the bat from the puddle of Zompony head and cleaned it off of most of its blood, handing it back to Vinyl after she had sunk the sword into the dirt and pulled it back out, cleansed of Zompony innards. Vinyl grinned and sheathed the sword, slipping her bat back into the saddlebags that lay snugly on her back.

"We make a good team."

"I think I love you."

"What?"

"Hm?"

"Did you say something?"

"No, I don't think so…"

"Oh, uhh, okay…"

"I'm getting really sick of this really fast." Vinyl snapped as she slammed her frying pan into a Zompony skull with a loud, echoing CLANG!, cracking the skull and sending bits of bone flying into the grass. The beast fell and a sudden silence took over the area once more.

"This thing is way too loud." Vinyl glared at the pan before shoving it back into her bag.

"I'm sorry, I should have considered the noise before I picked it out." Tavi apologised, frowning and looking around fretfuly for more of the Zoms.

"S'not your fault." Vinyl said softly, her hard, irritable expression falling off her face, replaced by a soft smile, "At least the thing's powerful!"

"Yes, that I did take into account." Octavia grinned at set her knives back into her bag, walking up and settling herself at a smooth pace, stride-for-stride with Vinyl Scratch.

"I'm exhausted."

"Me, too."

"I can take first watch."

"Really?"

"Yes, Vinyl, really."

"Haha, sorry. Thanks."

"No problem."

Vinyl sat in the fork of a tree branch for several minutes, fretting about the little box that lay in her saddlebag. When would the right time be? How would she find a romantic atmosphere during the end of the world? Sighing she pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind and tried to get some sleep.

She really would need it.