//------------------------------// // Love Don't Run (TaviScratch) // Story: Waxing Lyrical // by Imperator Chiashi Zane //------------------------------// ‘Come on, Come on. Tavi, be awake.’ Vinyl Scratch rolled past a handsomely carved bush, staying low to the ground, her brilliant white coat covered in a black hoodie, crimson eyes fully exposed to the dim light. Her ears tracked back and forth, listening for the groundspony, hoping he didn’t hear her. Finally, she reached the wall, right below Octavia’s window. She picked up a rock, in her hoof, planning ahead, knowing that the slightest glow would give her away. Her hoof whipped up, flinging the rock to the window, ‘C’mon Tavi. Answer me already. I gotta know.’ After what seemed like forever, the window slid open, silently, and the grey furred mare stuck her head out the window, hissing down at Vinyl, “Stop it! My mum’ll kill me if you break the window.” A rope ladder dropped down, and Vinyl scrambled up, wiggling through the partially open window and rolling across the floor, settling onto her back on the thick carpet, “Have I told you yet how much I love your carpet?” Octavia clamped a hoof over Vinyl’s mouth, “Shh! Keep it down. You know my parents don’t want me dating a commoner, let alone a mare…” Vinyl smiled, and shot her tongue out, licking the frog of Octavia’s hoof, “C’mon Tavi, you know I’ll always be here for you, even if your ball-and-chain don’t like you rolling in the hay with another mare.” Octavia stared at her saliva coated hoof, then turned her gaze to Vinyl, “You couldn’t possibly be that cru…Oh, wait, yes you could.” Vinyl fluttered her eyelashes, and moved a hoof to the zipper on the front of her hoodie. The little metal tag started sliding down, but was suddenly yanked up to her throat as she was given a less-than-gentle shove under the bed, “Ta…” Vinyl’s voice shut off as she saw the door opening. Octavia had always been able to sense her parents better than the DJ ever could, which came in really hoofy right now. She watched as the tall stallion, Mozart Orchestral, stopped just a muzzle length from her floppy blue mane. Her breath caught in her throat as the tall stallion muttered something she could barely understand. A response she barely heard from Octavia. Raised volume. Called, and a Raise. All in, the stallion was unintelligible at that volume, which said something, for all the earsplitting bass Vinyl played with daily. The stallion started to turn around, and his brown tail brushed against her muzzle. Vinyl clapped her hoof across her nostrils, attempting to stop the sneeze. Didn’t take. Her head slammed into the bottom of the bed as she jerked back. Stars filled her eyes as she was hauled out by her hooves and rolled onto the bed. The stars cleared and she saw the angry brown eyes of Octavia’s sire. She hesitated to call him a father. “Explanation. Now.” There was no argument. The words spilled from Vinyl’s lips, unrestrained. “I…I…c..came to…” she stopped and swallowed, “I came here to rut your daughter senseless, in your house. I braved the dangers of your security system to get here, and I’m not leaving until…” A yellow haze of magic grabbed her ear and yanked her up, forcing her to follow the Unicorn composer, “I said, I’m not leaving!” Her own magic wasn’t strong enough to break his grip, but she continued to try, right up until he hoofed her off to the security stallion. “Get her off the grounds, and make sure she stays off them.” __ __ Vinyl tapped the catering server on the back of his skull, using a bit of magic to force him to sleep. Perfect. Now if only the one she had chosen to drop wasn’t an Earth Pony who probably outweighed her by a hundred kilos. The uniform was loose, but she managed to bunch it up with magic pins that she hid behind the trays. Sure they were heavier than she was used to levitating, but they were still just big round disks, just like her records. She followed another caterer through the door, making certain to keep unnoticed as she slid the trays onto a table and ducked away. Step one complete, she made a hasty gallop to the dining hall. The Unicorn serving the meal to Octavia’s family was white, and his magic was almost the same shade as her own. Perfect. She waited for him to pass, then to ensure that her ruse wasn’t discovered just yet, delicately pinched off his blood-flow to his brain until he dropped. It was a trick she had learned in the club, to settle unruly customers who tried to get up on stage with her. The body was tucked into a closet, and she grabbed a tray of fruit. Strawberries, the same color as her eyes, Octavia’s favorite. Perfect. She trotted through the door, head held high as she approached. None of the ponies at the table noticed as she arrived and started the tray around. A couple of them snagged the ripe berries, and Vinyl rearranged the remaining ones subtly as it moved, right up to Octavia. Then she got clever. The berries rolled past the Earth pony’s fork, forming the shape of several words, ‘Tavi, look up’, and she did. Brown eyes met red, and the grey mare had to resist the urge to speak up, her eyes instead passing a quick message to Vinyl, as she poked one berry, then daintily set her napkin on the table. “Mother, may I be excused for a moment?” Her mother glanced up from her own conversation, and nodded, “Very well dear. Do hurry, dessert is almost here.” Octavia almost leapt from her seat, slipping out into the hallway, where Vinyl met her after depositing the tray on the hall table. The two contacted, lips first, with a passion unseen by most. They were separated suddenly and violently by Octavia’s father, once more making use of the fact that he played a grand piano, and could easily levitate the entire monstrosity by himself. He set Octavia on the floor, “Honey, get back to the table. Dessert is ready. I will be right back,” he turned to Vinyl, “After I take out some trash.” As the stallion levitated her down the hall, he found that it was getting more and more difficult to float her and keep her quiet at the same time, so he set her down on the driveway, reaching out the window, “Depart immediately, and never come back. Next time, I will call the Guard.” __ __ Last try, Vinyl knew Octavia’s father was serious about calling the Guard. He never joked about anything. She waited patiently for the carriage crew to arrive, and slipped in with them. One seemed to recognize her, but kept her mouth shut, and let Vinyl join in, helping to secure the draw-lines to the six stallions who would be taking them to the opera. Vinyl slipped up onto the running board, waiting as Octavia approached, garbed in the most elaborate dress the DJ had ever seen. Fair enough, since it was the Canterlot Opera. Vinyl just had a page-colt’s hat and dust-coat to hide her identity. Her hoof reached out to help her mare-friend up into the carriage, and before she let go, her lips pressed against Octavia’s hoof. “Baby, I’m right here. I ain’t gonna give up on us just ‘cause your sire says to.” Octavia gasped, and flinched back, knocking Vinyl’s hat off. The shockingly blue mane stood out brightly, and almost immediately, Vinyl knew she was done for. She heard the older stallion shouting for the Guard, to arrest her. Buck. She could hear hooves clopping on the cobblestone, the arriving officers, there to arrest her. They were watching. Oh, Tartarus! She grabbed Octavia, not caring that she was wrinkling the dress that probably cost more than she made in a month, and mashed her lips to the grey mare’s. Gasps of shock and horror spread through the crowd, along with revulsion, but one voice stood out above them all. Octavia’s mother, “Oh, shut up!” The golden mare grabbed her husband by the ear, her Earth-pony strength lending her a bit of extra leverage as he dragged his head down, “Mozart! Let the filly alone! Can’t you see, it’s like me and you!” “But I’m a stallion!” “And that gave my poppa one more reason to hate you!” She glared at him, “Not that he could stop us. And neither,” she gestured at the two mares, no longer upright, but lying in a pile of fabric on the carriage floor, “will you stop them. Let it be.