CHAPTER 1
Vinyl looked down at her mug and sighed. The thing was still half-full of the liberating beverage and yet, its subtle smell of fermented pears made the mare nauseous. She pushed the mug away a couple of inches, putting her snout out of reach of the odor her breath no doubt shared as of now.
The unicorn certainly was used to drinking. She had spent the vast majority of her legal years - and a few more before that - out in the clubs, either as a performer or simple customer. She certainly enjoyed a mug of hard cider as much as the next pony, but apparently four was going to be the hard limit tonight.
The mind just wasn't into it it seemed.
Vinyl struggled a bit and lifted her head to look back at her very quiet surroundings. Between the worn out benches and the old frosted bar, only a couple of ponies were drinking to the lame background music that played during the late afternoon. Most of them were early regulars, or ponies spending their welfare bits; Maybe one of them was in the same situation as her.
In what situation was she anyway?
The mare closed her eyes slowly, rubbing her neck and lifting her mane a bit, trying to let some air cool her neck. The summer weather was not doing any good in small closed places like these and the mix of cider and hot temperature seemed to particularly ruin her natural cooling system.
Maybe she should go back home, lay down a bit in the basement. Canterlot was mainly built on rocky foundations and those lucky enough to own a basement could benefit from very dry and cool living spaces. Tempting prospects during those days, especially since nopony - beside the princesses, of course - owned a large enough lot to get any sort of decent pool.
Vinyl grunted at the thought. As tempting as it was, she obviously couldn't go back now. It hadn't even been two hours yet; Octavia was certainly still mad at her - or crying, or both - and getting home drunk not even a quarter past six wouldn't help anypony's case. She had to give her marefriend a couple more hours, and she could use sobering up a bit before having to have any form of serious talk with the gray pony.
The thought made the unicorn pull the mug closer to her. Reluctantly breathing the smell, Vinyl swiftly brought the container to her lips and finished the remaining alcohol; no point in wasting a drink she had paid for. The bartender looked in her direction, having noticed the sound of an empty mug, but Vinyl absent-mindedly signaled the colt her lack of intentions to pursue the drinking; she had better plans forming out in her foggy brain.
***
A couple of miles further down the road, far away from the old downtown Canterlot, a small midtown apartment was being filled with a melodic array of warm sounds as experienced hooves danced along the strings of a cello. Anypony lucky enough to be within earshot of the masterwork would be graced by the sounds of a chilling melody, no doubt played from deep within the heart. Normally, the notes would only land in the delighted ears of the two mares residing in the small building - when it was not thousands of paying spectators - but today, Octavia was playing only for herself.
Tears spotted the otherwise immaculate gray coat of the pony as she kept playing her favorite song, drawing each note longer than necessary, savoring the escape music provided to her soul.
A couple of minutes later, the last note resonated deep within the pony as she finally lay down her bow beside her. Her cello was ever so gently placed back in its case before the pony allowed herself to fall unceremoniously on the couch, sighing heavily. As silence was finally allowed back in the tiny room, Octavia contemplated the empty wall, her mind racing.
How could she have been so cruel? That was not like her at all. She was not royalty, or even remotely high born. She was not even that rich, but the mare had always made a point of being as civilized as possible. She could count on her hooves the number of times she had willfully used curse words, but somehow, this afternoon it had come to this.
The mare clenched her head in her front hooves, her back shivering as she let out another round of tears. In two years of living together, never had she and Vinyl had a real fight. To most ponies, this would probably be hard to imagine, seeing how different the two mares were - both in character and tastes - but after a while they had grown used to letting each other's quirks and manners slide. It became sort of an acquired habit to be very open minded when they were together.
Sure, it had not been easy at first, but either by some kind of miracle - or maybe it was destiny - they got through their relationship completely unscathed until now, never going past the harmless – although admittedly numerous - tongue-in-cheek insults. Two whole years.
But the thing was, during those happy two years, the couple never needed to take anything seriously. It was the adult equivalent of high-school romance. Both of them had very permissive jobs in the musical field, and even though Octavia's was the only lucrative of the two, between the two of them, the subventions for young artists and especially the free apartment courtesy of Octavia's parents, life was very easy. Maybe a little bit too easy.
As much as it was the ideal setup to focus on their respective careers and mutual relationship, it was not a good stress test on said relationship. It's never very hard to agree when nothing is really at stake.
So maybe, just maybe, it wasn't quite the ideal setup after all.