//------------------------------//
// Shattering  
// Story: Shattered 
// by Zeck 
//------------------------------//

	Sea Swirl was trying her best to behave. She was sitting calmly on the floor, her forelegs perfectly straight, ears forward, and hindquarters clenched. The only movement was the slight swishing of her tail across the carpet and her rapid breathing, which try as she might, she could not slow down. 
“Um…Symphony?” she called quietly. “We’re, um…you don’t have to do this. I mean, we already agreed on one, didn’t we?”
The deep royal purple curtain in front of the Unicorn rustled a bit and a moment later a quiet voice slipped out from behind it. 
“Do you want me to stop?”
“Uh…” Sea Swirl shifted her weight, trying her best not to accidently brush a certain part of her body. “Well…”
“I will stop if you wish.” A beautiful yellow head with soft purple hair poked out from behind the curtain. Two crystal blue eyes with a hint of green gazed at Sea Swirl, their stunning colors half covered by eyelids with delicate lashes. “But you seem to be enjoying this…display.”
Sea Swirl swallowed. She squeezed her hindquarters even harder, trying to keep herself planted firmly on the floor. “Um…it’s just, you’re taking a long time.”
“My apologies,” the Earth pony said. She hung her head, still not revealing the rest of her body from behind the curtain. “I did not realize you were in a hurry. I will finish up.”
“No!” Sea Swirl jumped to her hooves and instantly regretted the decision. Her hind legs were nearly numb, and it wasn’t entirely from just sitting on them. “I-I mean, maybe…I could come back there and…help you get changed?”
The Earth pony looked up and, once again, Sea Swirl had the dreaded sensation that she had crossed a line. She was still trying to figure out how to read Symphony, because even though the mare had said that Sea Swirl was hers, there were times where she still had a look of…something on her face. Sea Swirl wouldn’t call it ‘disgust’ exactly. Maybe ‘uncertain’ fit better, but whatever the look was, it was the one Symphony was wearing now. 
Sea Swirl gulped and struggled to hold the mare’s flat stare, and just when she was about to break and look away, her courage was rewarded. 
A grin that made Sea Swirl nearly have to excuse herself spread across Symphony’s face. It was a look the Unicorn had only seen once before—that night, specifically when Symphony had taken complete control—and seeing it in the private dressing room they were in made Sea Swirl want to scream. Instead, she bit her lip and let out a pathetic whimper. 
“Somepony needs help,” Symphony said in a voice that made Sea Swirl’s tail go stiff. “But…it is not me.”
“Symphonyyyyyy…!” Sea Swirl whined. She lowered to body to the floor and buried her head in her hooves. She physically hurt. She had tasted a forbidden fruit that night, and no matter how had she tried, she could not get the taste out of her mind. 
“Do you…want me?”
Sea Swirl whimpered from under her hooves. 
“Do you want to come in here with me?”
Sea Swirl nodded her head, but refused to look up.
“My Unicorn will look at me when I address her!”
Sea Swirl peeked out from under one of her hooves and nearly lost all conscious thought. Symphony had emerged from behind the curtain and was dressed in an outfit that would be risqué even by the shadiest nightclubs’ standards. It was a two-piece, both parts made of black fabric. The top was little more than a strip of black cloth running across her upper body. It pressed tightly against her body, squishing her fur and showing off her curves. 
The bottom part was a miniskirt that hugged the Earth pony’s flank in a way that Sea Swirl didn’t think was possible. She could see every curve along Symphony’s backside, and she found her eyes tracing the mare’s outline as she licked her lips. Worse, there were garter straps going down from the miniskirt and connecting to fishnet stockings on Symphony’s hind legs. 
“Celestia…” Sea Swirl whispered as her body gave out. 
“Do you want me to press you against the wall in here and choke you while I wear this?”
“YES!” Sea Swirl had tears in her eyes as she lay on the floor, staring at a sight that even her wildest dreams never would have imagined. “Please! Please, do it! Do anything you want to me!” 
Symphony waved a single hoof and Sea Swirl rushed forward. She nearly tackled Symphony back into the private dressing room, but she tripped on the curtain and wound up falling forward. She braced herself to land face-first on the floor, but Symphony reached out and caught her with her foreleg. 
“Uh, thanks,” Sea Swirl said, staring at the yellow body that was now dangerously close to her face. “Guess I got a little—woah!” 
Sea Swirl suddenly found herself lifted up and spun through the dressing room. She crashed into the back wall and was about to fall forward, but a firm hoof to her chest kept her pinned. 
Symphony was standing on her hind legs like she had when she had played her violin that night, and Sea Swirl suddenly had a whole new appreciation for the outfit she was wearing. The fishnet stockings were stretched against her hind legs to the point that her yellow coat was threatening to burst through them. Her miniskirt was hugging her hips in a way that Sea Swirl had never seen on a pony, riding up enough to leave barely a hint to the imagination of what was hidden, and her black top stretched and contracted with every breath as she held Sea Swirl against the wall. 
“For a pony who lives in Canterlot, you are not terribly skilled on your hind legs,” the Earth pony said as she drew closer. “I feel that, should I remove my hoof, you will fall flat on your face.”
“Y-Yeah,” Sea Swirl stammered as Symphony drew right up to her. “Never got the hang of walking on just my back legs.”
“Tell me something then,” Symphony said. “Does that mean you have never been…have you never…like this?” For a brief moment, Symphony’s allure broke and she turned back into that frighten mare Sea Swirl had found sitting on her bed several nights ago; the mare that was scared of what was happening between them. Her face turned pink and her eyes darted to the side, but her hoof remained steadfastly in place. 
Sea Swirl took that as a good sign at least. 
“Are you asking if I’ve ever done it standing—?”
Sea Swirl was cut off as Symphony’s other hoof came forward and pressed down on her throat. She gasped , more from pleasure than shock, and Symphony struck like a coiled snake. Her mouth clamped down on Sea Swirl’s, and the Unicorn instantly felt the mare’s tongue lashing around in her mouth, intertwining with her own. 
Sea Swirl’s entire body trembled and she reached forward with her forelegs, pulling Symphony closer as blood rushed through her body. Doing so caused Symphony’s thigh to slip between her own hind legs and the mare’s garter strap brushed her. Sea Swirl gasped and nearly collapsed, but Symphony kept her pinned to the wall. 
“Like that?” the mare whispered as she pulled out of the kiss. She was still pressing down hard on Sea Swirl’s throat, so all the Unicorn could manage was a weak nodded. “What about this?”
Symphony pressed her thigh further between Sea Swirl’s legs as she kissed her again. 
It only took two presses. 
Sea Swirl had had some intense experiences before in her life. When she had and Yukari had been together, the Griffon had shown Sea Swirl things with her talons that no pony could ever hope to match. She still had a few striking memories that she recalled on lonely nights. 
But all of those memories were shoved aside as Sea Swirl’s hind legs went numb. She had never been forced to remain standing on them after it happened, and the sensation was unbelievable. It was made even more exciting by the fact that she was standing only on her hind legs. Her knees trembled in a way she had never felt before, and if not for Symphony’s thigh, she would be slouched against the wall. She wanted to scream, but the combination of Symphony’s tongue in her mouth and the mare’s hoof on her throat, all that escaped her was a primal sound that she only made in the deep throes of emotion. 
Symphony pressed her entire body against Sea Swirl and held her against the wall, forcing her tongue into her mouth and her thigh between her legs until the Unicorn became nothing more than goo. Her forelegs let go of Symphony and she slouched against the wall, her body trembling in new and exciting ways as the Earth pony finished with her. 
Symphony pulled out of the kiss and Sea Swirl watched a lone strand of spit hang between their lips for a few moments before it fell on her lush yellow body. She eased up on Sea Swirl’s throat a little, allowing her to breath easier, but the hoof on her chest remained in place. 
“Did my Unicorn like that?” 
Sea Swirl couldn’t bring herself to form words, so she just nodded. 
“Hm…” Symphony stared at her again, her eyes clouding over for a moment as they looked up and down the Unicorn’s standing form. She didn’t move her thigh away, nor did she stop pinning Sea Swirl to the wall. She just stood there for a while, her eyes darting from Sea Swirl’s face, to her neck, to her chest, and even to the wall behind her. 
Finally, Sea Swirl began to worry. “Um…Symphony? Is everything—aahh!”
Symphony pressed her thigh between Sea Swirl’s legs. “Quiet,” she ordered as she pressed down on Sea Swirl’s throat again. 
The Unicorn’s body surged as the thrills rushed through her. In no time at all, Symphony pushed her over the limit again. She tried to moan, but Symphony kept her throat pressed close, her pressure nearing dangerous levels, but the thrill of it only excited her more. 
Her hind legs went beyond numb. They felt like they were no longer attached to her body and she knew that if Symphony pulled away, she would collapse on the floor in a pile of ecstasy. 
But Symphony wasn’t done. She kept rubbing her thigh between Sea Swirl’s legs. Sea Swirl lost count of how many times the mare pushed her over the edge as her mind went to a place that she hadn’t experienced since…she couldn’t even remember. Symphony had broken her, and she loved it. 
The Unicorn leaned against the wall, her breath coming in shallow, pleasured gasps. Her eyes were closed and she tried to regain sensation in her body, but the only thing she could feel was the weight of her head and the soft breeze of Symphony’s breath on her cheek. She was vaguely aware of the thigh she was now using as her main support, and somewhere in the back of her mind she could still feel the hoof pressing down on her throat, but right now all she wanted to do was stay against the wall, letting the passion and excitement leak out of her. 
Without warning, Symphony pulled all of Sea Swirl’s support away. Her hooves stopped pinning her to the wall and, more importantly, she pulled her thigh out from between Sea Swirl’s legs. With nothing left to support her, and her body still in the early stages of shock recovery, the Unicorn collapsed in a heap on the dressing room floor. 
“You are filthy,” Symphony said. Sea Swirl rolled her head and looked up at the mare standing over her. She was still on her hind legs, with her front hooves resting on her hips. Her purple tail swished a few times before it brushed Sea Swirl’s muzzle. “You stained this outfit. Look.”
Symphony gestured to her thigh, the one that had been between Sea Swirl’s legs moments ago. Sure enough, the fur was matted and the garter strap was glistening in the dim light. 
“Guess…” Sea Swirl found the effort to speak taxing. Her tongue felt too big for her mouth, but she forced herself to keep going. “Guess…I’ll have to…buy it too, huh?”
“You best do so,” Symphony said as she undid the garter straps and pulled the fishnets off her body. She paused for a moment, glancing down at Sea Swirl, and then she casually tossed the stockings on top of the Unicorn. 
“Sweet Celestia, you’re hot…” Sea Swirl whispered as the stockings fell on her head. She tried to stand, but her hind legs refused to budge, so she stayed on the floor and watched the Earth pony slip out of the rest of the outfit. 
“So you say,” Symphony said, her back to Sea Swirl. She wiggled out of the black miniskirt—Sea Swirl wanted to believe she was giving her a front row view on purpose—and folded it nicely before putting it on the small bench in the room. She did the same with the top and then walked toward the curtain. 
“You’re…sure you can cover these purchases?”
“No…no problem…” Sea Swirl forced an exhausted smile. Her hind legs were still refusing to stand, so all she could do was blink at the yellow pony. “Besides, if this is how you’re going to pay me back…I’ll buy the whole store.”
“Hm…” Symphony didn’t turn around for a few moments, but when she did, her face was a strange mix of happiness and…something else. “I will be taking the dress you chose for me back home.”
“My place, right?”
Symphony hesitated. “Yes…that is what I meant. But I have a stop to make beforehoof, so I will be a bit late.”
“I…” Sea Swirl tried to stand but her legs gave out. She fell back on the floor with a solid thud. “I can come with you, if you…uh, just give me a minute. Or five.”
“No, my Unicorn has…made a mess of herself. I will not be seen in public with her like this.”
“Hey, it’s your fault,” Sea Swirl protested. 
“I am…pleased to hear that.” Symphony tilted her head to the side, her purple mane spilling down one side of her face and neck as the strange look crossed her face and eyes once more. Then she blinked and the look vanished. “I will see you later.”
With that, Symphony spun around with Canterlot-level elegance and vanished from the dressing room. 
Sea Swirl stayed in the dressing room for another five minutes before she was finally able to stand. She packed up her new favorite outfit, her mind racing with ideas of what Symphony could do to her in it, and made her way out of the dressing room on shaky legs. She pushed the curtain aside and reached the door. She took several deep breaths before she was able to grab the doorknob and open it. 
“Found another outfit, dearie?” Sassy Saddles asked with a knowing smile. 
“Um…yes…” Sea Swirl said, her cheeks burning. 
When Symphony had said she needed a dress for the New Year’s Party tomorrow, Sea Swirl knew there was only one place in Canterlot to go. They had gone straight to Canterlot Carousel today and had spent a good hour simply picking out dresses that might look good. Sea Swirl full admitted that she didn’t know the first thing about real fashion, so Sassy had been more that happy make suggestions until they had narrowed it down to three choices. 
Symphony had then started trying on one of the dresses when more ponies had entered the shop. It quickly became apparent that the Earth pony was not comfortable showing off her dresses in the public. Sassy had pointed out the dressing rooms, but even that hadn’t been enough to quell Symphony’s anxiety.
It was then that Sassy had said that Rarity had a more private dressing room in the back of the shop, reserved for ponies that were interested in trying on more…thrilling outfits, and that no pony else was using it. 
So Sea Swirl and Symphony had spent a while in the back room, Symphony trying on each of the dresses and showing them off for Sea Swirl in her own private fashion show. It had taken them another half hour to finally settle on one, and as they were walking out, Sea Swirl had jokingly pointed out some of the more sultry outfits, saying Symphony should try one of them on too.
Sea Swirl’s jaw had nearly hit the floor when Symphony agreed, and what should have only been a half hour in the back quickly turned into…
Sea Swirl blushed as she looked at the clock. They had been back there that long? 
“Uh…I hope we weren’t, you know…disturbing your customers,” she whispered as she sheepishly pulled out the bits for the dress that Symphony had taken as well as the outfit in Sea Swirl’s saddlebag. 
“Bobbines and bodkins, no,” Sassy said with a wink. “Rarity made sure that room had a sound-cancelling spell placed on it. Of course, there is the extra fee for the clea—”
“Right, got it!” Sea Swirl said quickly as she slammed down a few more bits, her face redder than she thought possible. There were other ponies in the store now, and the last thing she needed was for them to overhearing things. 
“Thank you for shopping at Canterlot Carousel,” Sassy said with a beaming smile. “Do let me know how she likes the dress.” 
Sea Swirl, her face still burning, nodded and dashed out the front door, avoiding eye contact with every other pony in the store. 
As soon as she was back outside, the cold winter air bit into her steaming body. She gasped as it made its presence known on certain damp parts of her coat. Symphony was right, she decided as she shivered and pulled her scarf tighter across her neck. She needed to get home and take a shower. 
I have to pay her back for this tonight, she thought as she trudged through the snow in Canterlot’s streets. It wasn’t fair that Sea Swirl had gotten to have all the fun today, after all. 


*                                                  *                                                  *


Symphony had lied. She had no other place to go. She just wanted to get away to collect her thoughts. 
The snow was beginning to fall once again, adding to the already considerable amount on the ground. For a few minutes, the mare walked through the white powder, her booted hooves crunching it with every step, but eventually the cold began to eat through her scarf and yellow coat, so she ducked inside a small tea shop.
“Hello, ma’am,” the hostess said. “Is it just you?”
“Yes,” Symphony said. 
“Follow me please.”
Symphony followed the mare to a table toward the back. She sat down and ordered a single cup of tea and bread, and the hostess left with the order. A few moments later, a waiter came over and dropped off her meal, leaving her alone with her thoughts. 
“What am I doing?” she whispered as she stared at her reflection in the tea. She had just sexually pleasured Sea Swirl in a public place. She had pinned her to the wall and made her climax again and again. Willingly. And she hadn’t even let Sea Swirl do the same to her.
I don’t want her to do that to me! Symphony thought bitterly. Right…?
Of course she didn’t. The idea of having such a lewd thing done to her in public, where the risk of being discovered was too great, terrified her. But she quickly realized that such a reservation made little sense. She was too frightened to have it done to her, but she was fine doing it to Sea Swirl? That was absurd. If Sassy Saddles had walked back there, she would not have cared what position Symphony was in; she would have simply known that Symphony was involved in…that sort of activity.
“So then…why did I did I like doing it to her?” Symphony asked herself. She had been wondering that since she had first stuck her head out of the dressing room earlier and seen the beaming look on Sea Swirl’s face. The Unicorn’s two reddish eyes seemed to only see Symphony when they looked at her, and the mare liked that. But why? Why did she like it, when she wasn’t a fillyfooler? She didn’t like mares! Sea Swirl was her Unicorn, sure, but that…that didn’t mean…she wasn’t a…right? Yes, she enjoyed that night. She also enjoyed the cuddling, the kissing, the stroking, and even just having Sea Swirl around for company…
But that didn’t make her one of…them! She just…liked making Sea Swirl smile, that was all. That did not mean she preferred the company of mares in any—
“I just pleasured her until she could barely walk!” Symphony hissed, tears swelling in her eyes. 
And…I enjoyed it!
That was the part that had made Symphony run away from Sea Swirl a little while ago. The Earth pony had loved pinning the Unicorn to the wall. She had relished choking her, pressing her throat until her eyes went wide. She had shoved her thigh between Sea Swirl’s hind legs and wanted the Unicorn’s fluids to stain her. She had pressed her as hard as she could, and she would have kept going, until a horrifying thought had jumped into her mind.
The feeling of power, of control, that she received when she choked Sea Swirl was a rush of its own. There was a primal part of her mind that enjoyed the idea of her Unicorn being at her mercy, knowing that she could cause her harm and yet Sea Swirl let her do things anyway. Symphony reluctantly admitted that she enjoyed that feeling of domination, and she doubted it was simply because Sea Swirl was a Unicorn. But she had come to terms with those feelings earlier, the most private parts of her mind that she would never let anypony see.
She had not stopped because she liked the feeling she was getting. She had stopped because she had realized she liked making Sea Swirl happy. Yes, the feeling of acting out a dark power fantasy over a Unicorn was nice, but Symphony had realized, as she had felt Sea Swirl contract again on her thigh, that she was enjoying the experience because Sea Swirl was enjoying it. 
Sea Swirl’s tired but blissful smile, her shaky but excited breathing, her quivering but enamored eyes, the way she wrapped her forelegs tightly around Symphony’s body; those sights had made Symphony so happy because she knew that Sea Swirl was truly content, and that had made Symphony’s heart swell. 
“I…” Symphony stared at the yellow pony looking back at her from the teacup. Despite the tears threatening her eyes, a smile was starting to creep onto her lips. “I…I guess I am a…fillyfoo—”
“Um…Symphony?”
Symphony froze as the quiet voice reached her ears. She wanted to run, but the table she was seated at was in the back of the shop, against the wall. The only place she had to go was toward the entrance, and she got the feeling that if she raised her head, she would find that path blocked.
Instead, she just looked at her tea and bread.
“Still as rude as ever,” another voice added.
Symphony’s ear twitched at the second voice. 
“B.B., please…” 
Symphony heard a pony slowly walk across the floor, followed by another one. A moment later, the corner of her view darkened as one of the ponies crept into the edge of her vision. 
“Um…can we talk?”
Symphony remained perfectly still in her seat. Her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts so violent that she could not make the conscious effort to speak. Why were they here? Hadn’t they ruined her life enough? Was it because for, the first time in her life, Symphony felt like she might be happy, so they showed up to destroy it all? 
“Still stuck up too.” The other voice practically spit the words at Symphony.  “Come on, Fiddlesticks. You’re wasting your time, and I’m suddenly not hungry.” 
“Why are you here?” Symphony asked in a voice that barely reached a whisper.
“What was that?”
Symphony turned to look at the two ponies standing next to her table. The furthest one was sky blue with a brown mane and tail. She wore a pink bowtie around her neck, much like Symphony’s own purple one, and her light purple eyes were narrowed to the point of disgust, mirroring the feeling in Symphony’s mind. Her cutie mark was an F-clef, marking her as a pony who loved music. For all intents and purposes, this mare looked like she belonged in Canterlot, and if Symphony did not already know her, she would have made that assumption. 
The same could not be said of her companion, the pony who was now standing practically next to Symphony. Her coat was yellow, much like Symphony’s, but that was where their similarities ended. While Symphony was dressed properly, this mare wore a plaid red winter coat that had clearly seen too many seasons. Under it, Symphony saw that she had on a green shirt, likely the same tattered one she had ben wearing when they had first met. Her country reddish-orange bandana was pulled tightly around her neck to protect against the winter cold, and instead of wearing a hat or even earmuffs, she still wore her ridiculous white cowgirl hat, with its frayed edges and brim drooping from snow. The only thing missing was the tacky sash she wore around her waste to keep her shirt on, and Symphony wouldn’t be surprised if it was just under her plaid coat. 
Her dark blue mane was a total mess, nothing like Symphony’s beautiful purple one, and her tail was looking a little tangled, completely opposite of Symphony’s wavy one. Her eyes, matching the color of the mare with her, were trying hard to smile, but Symphony easily saw the terror and uncertainty hiding behind them, and it made her sick. She didn’t want this false pity. Symphony knew this mare hated her, just like her marefriend behind. The only difference was that this pony was trying to hide it.
But the thing that disgusted Symphony the most wasn’t this mare’s lack of basic fashion sense, or her hick country appearance, or even the false look of concern in her eyes. 
It was her cutie mark. It was a music symbol, just like Symphony’s. It was a treble clef, bright blue against her yellow flank, announcing to the world that she was skilled in music, just like Symphony’s eighth note did. It was infuriating to think that this pony possessed the same talent as Symphony, and worse remembering that not only had ponies mistaken Symphony for her after the talent show, but that this pony had actually beat her at the talent show.
The fact that she was related to Octavia, one of Canterlot’s highest regarded musicians, was just pouring salt on the wound. 
“What? You too good to answer the question now?” Beauty Brass snapped.
Symphony looked at her for a moment, blinked, and then returned her gaze to Fiddlesticks. “Why are you here?” she asked again, a little louder this time. 
“Well, um…” Fiddlesticks’ ears flopped against her head, vanishing behind a tidal wave of blue hair. “It’s snowing outside, and we were kind of hungry, so we thought we’d wait out the storm and, uh…”
“I mean, why are you in Canterlot?” Symphony said. “Shouldn’t you back on your farm, raising chickens and herding pigs or…something?” 
Didn’t you already ruin my life enough? she silently added. 
“Watch it…” Beauty Brass growled.
The memory of the Earth pony slugging Symphony in the jaw flashed through Symphony’s mind and she recoiled for a moment, but then she puffed her chest out defiantly as she glared back at the mare. 
“Oh,” Fiddlesticks said, her voice jumping up a few notes as she smiled. “B.B. got tickets to the New Year’s Party, so…” A shadow passed across Fiddlesticks’ face for a moment. “Um…do you want one?”
“Oh buck no!” Beauty Brass shouted, drawing a few stunned looks from the other ponies in the tea shop. 
“B.B., calm down,” Fiddlesticks whispered, nervously looking around at all the ponies staring at them now. “It’s my ticket, I can do what I want with it.”
“No, they’re my tickets,” the Earth pony countered in a loud whisper. 
“And one of them you gave to me,” Fiddlesticks replied, turning to put her hoof on Beauty Brass’ nose. “Which makes it mine. And I can—”
“If you give her that ticket, then she can have mine too, because I’m not going with her.” 
“Like I would wish to be your date,” Symphony said, her eyes narrowing. 
“Cute. You think I’d actually want you to be my date,” Beauty Brass shot back, stepping closer to Fiddlesticks. “I’d sooner—”
“Enough!” Fiddlesticks shouted, stunning not only Beauty Brass, but Symphony as well, into silence. “B.B., I am trying to be nice, but so help me, interrupt me again, and I’ma gonna show ya’ what happens when ya’ make me right steamed!”
Symphony couldn’t quite make sense of the emotions going through her mind right then. On the one hoof, she was ecstatic at the look of shock and fear on Beauty Bitch’s face, but on the other hoof she was terrified of the farm pony who had just gone full rural countryside in front of her. As uncivilized as her speech had become, it still struck a primal fear deep in Symphony’s heart. 
“Besides,” Fiddlesticks said as she turned back to Symphony, her speech back to normal pony standards, “Symphony’s already going to the party, aren’t you?”
“Hm?” Symphony asked. There was no way these two should know that.
“The bag,” Fiddlesticks said as she titled her head toward the shopping bag on the floor, next to Symphony’s saddlebag. “That’s the finest fancy clothes shop in Canterlot right now, ain’t it?”
“Isn’t,” Symphony said.
“It ain’t? But I keep hearing all these ponies talk about it. B.B. and I went there the other day to pick out our gowns even.”
Symphony sighed and took a sip of her tea. It wasn’t cold yet, but it wasn’t hot anymore either. “Never mind. Yes, I am going to the New Year’s Party, so no, I do not need your ticket.” 
Suddenly, an idea flashed in Symphony’s head. Yes, she would be at that party. She was definitely going to be there. In fact, the party would not be the same without her…
“Oh, that’s great,” Fiddlesticks’ said, bouncing on her hooves a little. 
“It is?” Beauty Brass asked, but she fell silent when Fiddlesticks shot her a look. 
“Maybe we’ll see you there. I bet you’ll look great in your gown.”
Sea Swirl seems to think I do.
Symphony brushed the happy thought away in favor of the darker emotions now slowly swelling up in side of her. This was perfect. This was her one chance at revenge, her one chance to take down the pony that had ruined her life, and she was going to revel in it. 
“I believe you will see me, yes,” she said, her eyes narrowing as a smile came to her lips. 
“Really?” Fiddlesticks and Beauty Brass said at the same time. 
“I-I mean, that’s great and all, but…” Fiddlesticks’ ears flopped again and she looked down at the floor. For a moment, Symphony’s resolve wavered. “It’s just…after the talent show, I’m…kind of surprised that you’d want to find us at the party.”
The memory of the talent show, and her humiliation the following day, came rushing back, along with all of Symphony’s bitter resolve. “Oh, I did not say I would find you. I said you will see me.”
“Um…huh?” Fiddlesticks said. 
Beauty Brass just glared, but kept her mouth shut. 
“You see, Fiddlesticks, I will be preforming there.” Symphony closed her eyes, sat up straighter, and puffed her chest out even more. “Princess Celestia herself asked it of me. Of course, I am being paid a rather generous amount in return for my talent, but that is secondary. What matters” Symphony opened one eye to look at the two ponies “is that I was hoofpicked by the most important pony in the world to perform at one of her biggest celebrations.”
Take that! How does it feel to know I’m better than you! The entire city of Canterlot is going to be staring up at me tomorrow night, and you’ll just be some faceless nobody in the crowd! They will finally see my brilliance, and all you will have left is you stupid little fiddle and your hayseed music that—
“That’s awesome!” 
“Wha…agh!”
Before Symphony could process what she had just heard, she found herself wrapped up in a hug that threatened to crush the life out of her. Her mind immediately started screaming, but her body was too shocked to do anything but tense up as the uncultured pony performed an action that was beyond Symphony’s comprehension. 
“Oh, sorry!” Fiddlesticks quickly pulled out of the hug and stepped away from the table. Her cheeks were crimson and she yanked her hat down over her eyes. “You, uh…probably didn’t want me to do that.”
Symphony made several attempts at speech, but all of them were little more than random sounds. Finally, she took a deep breath and looked at the mare that had ruined her life, not in anger, but in sheer confusion. “Why…?”
“I’m just so excited for you!” Fiddlesticks said, her blue eyes peeking out from beneath her hat for a moment. “I mean, this is huge for you, right?”
“Yes…” Symphony replied, at a complete loss for words. “It is. But why do you…?”
“Because Fiddle is a kindhearted pony, unlike—” Beauty Brass said. A quick look from Fiddlesticks made Beauty Brass stop short. “She’s genuinely happy for you, for some reason.” 
“Well, um…” Symphony felt like she was sinking into her seat. All the rage and contempt, and the blissful revenge she had been savoring, was now turning into ash in her body. All she wanted to do was run back to Sea Swirl’s bed and—
“So, does that mean Sea Swirl gave you back your violin?” Fiddlesticks asked. 
“Yes,” Symphony said, a bit of the edge returning to her voice. “After you sold it to a pawnshop.”
“What?” Fiddlesticks asked.
“We should have sold it, after what you did to hers, but we didn’t,” Beauty Brass added. “All we did was give it to Sea Swirl to give to you.”
“I was trying to give it back to you ever since…well, things happened,” Fiddlesticks said as she looked at the ground. “But we could never find you, and Sea Swirl said she knew you, so…”
Symphony’s blood started to run cold. Sea Swirl hadn’t found her violin in a pawnshop. These two ponies had given it to her. 
She…lied. She lied to me.
Symphony felt the darkest part of her mind begin to stir once more. The part she had been fighting against the past few months; the part she had locked away for the past few weeks; the part she had almost banished before these two had appeared.
“Um…Symphony?” Fiddlesticks whispered. She pulled her hat off her head and held it to her chest, allowing her blue mane to spill down her shoulders in full view. “Can I…ask you something?”
“Yes,” Symphony replied automatically. Her brain was too busy trying to figure out why that Unicorn had lied to her about this. Sea Swril had met Fiddlesticks and Beauty Brass, and had not mentioned it. No doubt they had said unkind things about Symphony. Had Sea Swirl stood up for her? Or had she agreed with them? After all, Symphony had not been the kindest pony when they had first met.
Wait…how long ago did this occur?
Symphony suddenly realized that she had no idea when Sea Swirl had actually met these two. Had she met them the day she had given Symphony the violin, or had it been before that? Had she been meeting with them for weeks? Months? Why hadn’t she mentioned it? What had they talked about? 
“Um…Sea Swirl thought that we had…done some things to you.”
No…! Symphony’s blood turned to ice. The darkest part of her mind grew fangs that glimmered in the shadows of her consciousness.
“She…mentioned a cliff.”
No! No no no no! 
“And a waterfall?”
Sea Swirl knew. She KNEW! She knew everything, and she had…! 
The fangs stuck, driving deep into Symphony’s mind and plunging down into her heart. 
She tricked me! 
That single thought tore through every fiber of Symphony’s being. She felt numb, frozen, and burning all at the same time. Her forelegs trembled in rage as her hind legs shook in shock. Her scalp felt as though spiders were crawling on it while ants dug into her yellow fur. Her body threatened to split open at every joint and spill her soul across the table as the thought continued to echo through her.
“Symphony? Are you okay? You’re crying!”
Sea Swirl had known the truth, possibly since they had first met. And she had kept pretending to believe that other ponies had tried to kill Symphony anyway. Why? Why had she lied? Why had she pretended to take Symphony’s side when she had known all along that—
Because she wanted you!
That thought, given existence by the darkness now eating away at her, cancelled out everything else she was feeling. It sank into the bottom of her stomach, and there it began to glow, a single light against the blackness in her.
Remember? Remember where you woke up that night?
Symphony replayed the events of their first night meeting. She had awoke in Sea Swirl’s bed. She had accused Sea Swirl of saving her only to sleep with her. But she had been wrong, right? 
No! No, you were right! Remember the trip to the ocean! 
That was right. Sea Swirl had “pretended” to fall asleep on her on the train, and then she had “accidently” booked a room with only one bed. And then, she had slept in the same bed with Symphony!
But…I did that. I put her in the bed! I didn’t want her to sleep on the floor…
She knew you’d do that! She wanted it to happen!
The memory of the next morning flashed in Symphony’s mind. Sea Swirl, pressed against her, stimulating herself “unconsciously” against Symphony’s body. That…hadn’t been on purpose, right? 
But what if it was? What if…?
That’s right! You ended up enjoying that!
That was true. Symphony had loved having the Unicorn hold her, and she had kept it secret for a long time, locked away in the part of her mind that thsi darkness had now escaped from. 
But you couldn’t fight it, could you? She knew you couldn’t. That’s why she let you stay over…
Symphony finally felt a tear roll down her cheek. 
She used me! She was just looking for somepony to…to buck! And I fell for it! She pretended to care about me! She pretended to be my friend! She pretended that she, that she…but this whole time, she was lying! She tricked me into sleeping with her! She was just trying to wear me down with the job, and her compassion, and her friendship! But it all meant nothing! NOTHING! 
That filthy Unicorn had used her. She had stolen her first kiss, her first time, and her first…everything! Just like a typical, filthy, disgusting Unicorn would! 
“Every pony in Canterlot is the same!” Symphony growled, a roaring fire of anguish and rage swelling in her chest now. “Every Unicorn is the same! All they do is use other ponies!”
“Symphony?”
Symphony looked up at the worried faces of Fiddlesticks and Beauty Brass, stunned to find them still there. She opened her mouth and screamed, “AND SEA SWIRL IS THE WORST OF THEM ALL!” 
The yellow mare sprang up from her seat, grabbed her saddlebags and shopping bag, and dashed out of the teashop. She did not notice the cold winter air cutting into her soaked cheeks. 



*                                                  *                                                  *


Sea Swirl stepped out her shower slowly. She wasn’t worried about slipping because of her soaking wet hooves. She just wasn’t sure if her legs were ready to really support her. The walk home from Canterlot Boutique had taken longer than it should have, and the entire time she had been reminded that she needed a shower thanks to the cold air between her hind legs. 
She had spent her entire shower huddled on the floor, letting the water beat on her as she tried to get the memories of her time with Symphony out of her head. She had been trying to get clean after all, not make more of a mess. 
“Okay, just take it slow,” she said to herself as she grabbed a towel with her magic. Her legs seemed to finally be working again, so she dried herself off—careful not to spend too much time in a certain area—and hung the towel over the door to dry. She then made her way out of the bathroom and down the hall toward the living room.
“I wonder if she’s back yet?” the Unicorn pondered as she entered the living room. Symphony consumed most of her thoughts now, especially when they weren’t together. Sea Swirl often found herself simply thinking about the mare’s all-too-rare smile, and taking comfort in the fact that it seemed to be showing up more and more in the last few days. “She’s probably just—oh! Symphony, you’re back!” 
Sea Swirl couldn’t hide the little uptick in her voice when she saw the yellow mare sitting in her usual spot on the couch. 
“Yes,” she said, but she didn’t turn to face Sea Swirl. 
“Great,” Sea Swirl answered, a silly smile spreading across her face. She trotted around the couch so she could sit next to the pony that she couldn’t stop thinking about. “Say, I need to find something to wear tomorrow too, so I was wondering if you’d…”
Sea Swirl trailed off and stopped moving when she saw Symphony’s face. Her eyes were bright red and the yellow fur around her face was matted, but there were no actual tears anywhere. 
Instead, the musical pony’s face was locked in a scowl so cold that Sea Swirl wanted to take a step back. When the crystal eyes flicked toward her, she did. 
“Um…you okay, Symphony?” Sea Swirl asked, forcing herself to take a step forward. To her surprise, Symphony scooted further away on the couch. “Did…something happen while you were out?”
“Where did you get it?” Symphony asked, her voice low, like when they had first met.
“Get what?” Sea Swirl asked. She suddenly felt like she was standing out in the middle of a frozen lake and she could feel the ice cracking beneath her hooves. 
“My violin,” Symphony said, her eyes zeroing in on Sea Swirl so fast that the Unicorn couldn’t help but look away. 
“Oh, that?” Sea Swirl said as she scratched the back of her neck. “I told you. I found it in a pawnshop. I thought—”
“Liar,” Symphony whispered. 
“What?”
“You’re lying!” In a flash, Symphony was on all fours and leering toward Sea Swirl. The Unicorn couldn’t help but take several steps back until her tail brushed up against the wall. 
“Symphony, I don’t—”
“I saw them today,” Symphony said darkly. “That…mare and her stupid marefriend.”
“Um…” Sea Swirl panicked. The ice she was standing on was cracking beneath her and she couldn’t think straight. “You mean Fiddlesticks and Beauty Brass?”
“So you do know them!”
Shit! Wrong answer! Sea Swirl realized with a start, so she tried again. 
“I, uh…ran into them a while ago, yeah, but—”
Symphony’s eyes went wide for a moment and the rage on her face vanished in a flash of shock. She hung her head, her face vanishing beneath her beautiful purple hair, and then her entire body started trembling. A few moments later, the low sound of her laughter started to fill the room. 
“It’s true then,” she whispered, her head still hanging down. “I…I thought maybe I was making too big of a deal out of this, but I’m not!”
“Symphony, I really don’t know—”
“But you do!” The mare whipped her head up so fast that tears flew from her face. “You know, don’t you? How long have you been talking to them? How long since you first met them?”
Sea Swirl felt the ice give out under her hind legs in her mind. She was struggling to stay on stable ground. “Symphony, I really don’t know what you’re—”
“How. LONG?” Symphony shouted.
Sea Swirl swallowed. The ice was gone, and she found herself floating in the freezing water. Her only hope now was if somepony reached out a hoof to help her. “Um…Since I hired you? But I only talked to them that one time, honest! I haven’t been—”
“You have been acquainted for that long?” Symphony laughed as more tears streamed from her beautiful eyes. “You have strung me along for that long? Did you three enjoy talking about me? Did you tell them stories, about how you ‘took care’ of me because I was so pathetic? Did they laugh at the fact that you had me completely fooled? ”
“Symphony, listen,” Sea Swirl pleaded. She took a chance and stepped forward. When the mare didn’t back away, she took another step, and another, until she was close enough to place her hoof on the pony’s shaking shoulder. “I really have no idea what you’re talking about, but if I did something that’s made you this angry, then—”
“Shut up!” Symphony slapped Sea Swirl’s hoof away and backed up. “You’ve known for months that I tried to kill myself! I wasn’t attacked! I threw myself off that cliff!  And you knew it!” 
Sea Swirl, her offered hoof still hanging in the air, swallowed. She could feel something building in her chest. It was similar to drowning, only much worse. Drowning, she could fight against, use magic against. This, all she could do was try to outrun it.
“I…didn’t know when I saved you,” she said.
“But you knew before…before all of this!” Symphony waved her hoof around the living room.
The sensation was growing, swelling up in Sea Swirl’s chest now. Her throat was constricting, and not in a pleasurable way. “…Yes.”
“So…so what?” Symphony said, her face now a mess of matted fur, tangled mane, and salt water. “Did you think I was some broken thing? Some messed up pony that you could string along for your benefit? That’s it, isn’t it? ‘Oh, she tried to kill herself! She’s vulnerable! She’ll latch on to anypony that makes her feel like she’s more than nothing!’”
“No, I just—”
“Stop lying to me!” Symphony lunged forward and Sea Swirl jumped back, crashing against the wall. “You saw me like that and you thought you could use me!  That I was such a mess that of course I’d fall for all your stupid Unicorn tricks!”
“Tricks?” Sea Swirl asked, too terrified to move. The feeling was crushing her windpipe now, making it hard to breathe. 
“Offering me a job, being nice to me, offering me your bed, letting me sleep next to you! Holding me like that! Making me feel like I mattered to you!”
“You do matter to me!” Sea Swirl protested, a tear coming to her red eye. “I did those things because I…I care about you.”
“Ha! No you don’t! You cared about the fact that I was broken! ‘Poor little Symphony, trying to kill herself. She’s damaged goods, so she’ll be an easy mark.’”
“No,” Sea Swirl protested, barely squeaking the word out. “Stop it! I…I would never do anything like—”
“I was right that first night, wasn’t I?” Symphony sneered, cutting Sea Swirl off. “You saved me and hoped that I’d sleep with you as thanks! You wanted a little trophy, a little mare that you could fix up as your own and then buck whenever you wanted! You bucking used me! You’re no better than all the other Unicorns in this world!”
Sea Swirl’s throat closed in on itself and tears were flowing freely now. “Symphony, I swear, I…I…”
“Well guess what.” Symphony’s voice instantly became ice cold. Her shaking stopped and she marched up to Sea Swirl until she was so close that their muzzles were almost touching. “I used you too.”
Sea Swirl tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but she couldn’t. “You…what?”
“You heard me,” Symphony replied, leaning forward. “I saw how well off you are and I thought that if I could get in good with you, I could move up in Canterlot.”
“No…”
“Yes!” A wicked smile spread across Symphony’s face, and the image burned itself into Sea Swirl’s mind. “I saw how desperate you were. Even when you were asleep, I knew how bad you wanted me! The idea disgusts me, naturally. Sleeping with another mare! Ugh, just saying it makes my fur bristle.”
“No it doesn’t,” Sea Swirl whimpered. Her legs were threatening to give out on her as she huddled against the wall. “You…you can’t mean that…”
“But I realized,” Symphony continued, deaf to Sea Swirl’s pleas. “If I wanted to really get in good with you, I’d have to give it to you. So I did. I let a filthy fillyfooler—and a Unicorn one at that!—have her way with me, I let her soil me, all so I could get in with her. That is how it is done in Canterlot, after all. I know plenty of ponies who have slept their way up the ladder. But you know what? I don’t need you anymore! I’m playing for the Princesses tomorrow night, so I can stop with this stupid game you’ve been playing.”
“But…that night…”
“That night…?” Symphony tilted her head to the side. 
Sea Swirl saw the moment and jumped for it. “You can’t tell me that night…that was just…that it meant nothing to you! I saw you. I saw the way you looked at me! Remember? We…we stayed wrapped around each other all night. We held each other. I stroked your neck until you fell asleep next me.” Sea Swirl’s vision was blurred to the point where she could not longer see the details on Symphony’s face. “You…had a smile on your face”
Symphony’s scoffed. “Who wouldn’t enjoy sexual pleasure like that? It’s a biological reaction, and as loathe as I am to admit it, you clearly know the right places to touch. But it doesn’t mean anything more. The whole time, the only thing I was thinking was how disgusting it was. Did your really think one night would turn me into a fillyfooler? Into you?”
Sea Swirl’s mind finally collapsed on itself. She sank to the floor, the wall being the only thing that slowed her descent. Her vision lost focus as she stared at the nothingness that was turning into her life one painful heartbeat at a time. She wanted to curl up in a ball and disappear, but her body refused to work. Symphony was lying. She had to be lying. She just had to be…
A final hope clawed its way through the murk that was threatening to drown the Unicorn. Desperate to save herself, she gave it voice. 
“What…what about today? In the dressing room? You—”
“I…” Symphony seemed to waver, but then her hoof stomped on the ground. “I just wanted to use you one last time. I wanted to feel your throat constricting beneath my hoof, watch you struggle, like the filthy Unicorn you are. I wanted one more memory of knowing that I had you completely under my hoof. That I had beat you. That I had used your, and that a disgusting fillyfooler like you had no idea that I was still using you even at the end.”
“Liar…” Sea Swirl whispered. She could feel the tears on her face, but she had no strength to brush them away. “You’re lying. You…you have to be…”
“I…I thought…” Symphony’s voice cracked for a moment. “I...I used you. Just like you used me.”
Sea Swirl was barely able to see Symphony’s legs turn and walk out of sight. She heard the mare walk over to the door. She felt the cold air rush in as the door was opened.
“Symphony…please don’t…” Sea Swirl whimpered, too weak to turn her head. “I…I don’t want…please…”
Don’t leave me alone. Not again…
“I’ll send you the money for the dress.”
The door closed, but the living room remained cold. On its floor, slouched against a wall, a lavender Unicorn with a two-tone mane and tail curled up, buried her face in her forelegs, and wept late into the night.