//------------------------------//
// 4. The Final Date 
// Story: Compersion 
// by Etolia 
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Viola sipped at her tea while staring at its handle intently. She drank with a companion, but Buffy was no tea drinker; she chewed on some biscuits and had a soda to her left instead. A clink issued from the saucer as she set her teacup down, and it was the only sound that disrupted the sounds of the ticking clock and Buffy's chewing.

It was the first time she'd been witness to a taciturn moment of silence with Buffy for a very long time.

And it would be a pleasant time. She would sip at her tea as Buffy sprinkled affection on her. She would watch ponies pass on the road while Buffy nuzzled into her neck. She would think of nothing but what she would do for the day and what potential her marefriend would have for messing it up.

It would.

Instead, she sipped at her tea and thought about something else, something that had been first on her mind for a very long time now. But she didn't want to think of her name. And it was that thought that colored her whole perception of Buffy and dates with Buffy. Even as she rested her head on her shoulder as she did so very often, Viola didn't feel a rush of warmth or bloom in her heart.

Only silence.

And then it was broken. "You planning anything for today, Vi?" Buffy said, not taking her head off Viola's shoulder.

"Nothing particularly exciting. I have a small concert tonight I have to attend to, though," Viola said idly while her mind wandered elsewhere. She threaded a pinion through the teacup handle and lifted it to her mouth.

"Oh! Then you don't mind if I go out with Azura tonight?"

Beyond her control, Viola grimaced. Her wing twitched, and a drop of tea splashed out of it. In truth, she did mind, and quite a bit.

Buffy continued. "She wants to go out of town and explore the quarry nearby. I'm not sure why she wants to go there, but maybe there's something exciting to see?"

She probably wants to propose to you, Viola thought grimly. She really didn't believe that would be possible after so little time, but Azura had already gone so far beyond what she thought capable already. It, somehow, had to remain a possibility. Along with the ceremony itself, some discussion that Viola no longer had a part in their relationship, and anything else she couldn't think of.

She put her tea back down on the saucer without taking a drink. The clink that issued was louder than before.

"I mean, even if there isn't anything to do, I guess we could find something. Maybe she set up her sound system there without my noticing. That would be a great place to throw a party, don't you think? Where it won't disturb too many other ponies?"

Oh, but it disturbs me.

And off she went, on and on. Azura, and everything she could do, and how well they got along.

"She's so nice, and there's always something to do with her, even if we're not going to an exciting place. Never a dull moment!"

Viola's frown deepened.

"She plays the best music, too, and we could just have so much fun if we went there. Maybe if she played a slower one, we could dance to it!" Buffy brought a hoof to Viola's chest and rubbed at it.

But then Viola looked at her. Her head was casually resting on her shoulder, and she was looking up to her with big eyes, a lackadaisical smile on her face. With her adorably disheveled mane against her coat, looking so prickly but feeling so soft. And that perfect pink coat against which she could never te// whether her marefriend was blushing. Against the soothing scent of tea, her Buffy smelled, strangely enough, spicy. Like whatever magical sparkles were coming off her mane were too much for her nose to handle.

By all measures, Buffy was still just as spellbinding as the day she met her.

"All three of us!"

And almost instinctually, Viola recoiled, her leg hitting the table and splashing a few more drops from her drink. Even as she basked in her love with Buffy, Azura found a way to barge her way in and spoil it all. Every. Single. Damn. Time.

She couldn't take it any more.

Three of them, that was what Buffy said. Well, if that was true, why did it feel like she was fighting against two? Every single time she came, it was Azura, Azura, Azura, all day long!

"Viola, are you okay? What was that about Azura?" Buffy was standing up from the table, her face dropped into one of more concern.

Viola had since stood up as well, and apparently she had voiced her last thoughts aloud. She found her breaths shallow and rapid, her brows were angled sharply, and her teeth were set. This was what that Azura did to her.

"Viola?"

She lost her kisses, she lost her dates, she lost her music, and she lost her Buffy. It was a frightening pony, a mare with nothing left to lose. And Viola had nothing left but her temper.

"So that's who it's all about," she began in a low voice, her mouth moving only slightly as she spoke. "Azura here, Azura there. I guess there's no more time for any Viola now, hmm?"

"What? What are you talking about, Viola? Of course I—"

"Of course you don't have time for me," she interrupted. She didn't need to hear Buffy's answer; she already knew it. "I don't know why I even ask."

"Of course I do! Viola, you're scaring me," Buffy said, a tremor coming into her voice. She backed away from the table a step. Viola matched it, brushing past the table. The biscuits remained there, half-eaten.

"Always time for her. I guess if that's how things are going to be, why don't you just marry her, then?"

"What? No, of course not! I mean, of course she's nice, and she's really cute, and she's really fun to talk to, but what makes you think I would do that?"

"And there you go again!" Viola snapped, her voice a dangerous mix of obvious frustration and seething rage. "Every single time you talk about her, you have to go on and on and on about just how much fun you have with her, and how much you like her. That's all you have to say now! What with all this love you're showering on this 'Azzy' of yours, have you even spared a moment to think about me?"

Buffy backed up a few more steps. "Vi, I—"

"Don't call me that!" Viola stalked closer and closed the gap at once. Her voice was almost entirely at the whims of her emotions now, and they wanted her to scream. "How can you even keep stringing me along when you've made it devastatingly clear that I'm not wanted anymore?"

Buffy worked her mouth, but no words came out.

"Fine!" Viola slammed a hoof on the ground. "Take her inside, kiss her inside and out until she's dizzy from all of it. Take her on dates every day and talk, talk, talk. Shower all your love on your new marefriend and leave none for the one who was first. Who writes songs for you. Who you let live in your own house! See if I care!" she roared.

"V-Viola!" Buffy cried, raising her own voice to rise above the tumultuous waves of Viola's roiling anger. "You know it doesn't work that way! I'm polyamorous, remember? I love both of you!"

Viola wouldn't admit that she forgot Buffy was polyamorous. It changed nothing. "So that's what it means to be a polyamorous relationship?" she hissed. "Me constantly needing to compete for your love against somepony else you call a 'partner'? Isn't that a good arrangement for you, being at the top of the food chain."

"What? N-no, that's not it at all! Just because I found Azura doesn't mean I love you any less!" Buffy kept on backing up until she had no room left, her hindquarters pressed against her apartment walls.

Viola took the ground Buffy relinquished until they were almost muzzle to muzzle. "Is that so. Is that really, really so. Well, tell me why I can't even enjoy time with you anymore for fear that Azura will take all of that away. Why I've spent evenings alone in your home with nothing but my violin to keep me company while you were off gallivanting without a care. Why?"

Buffy was curled up against the wall, fear written in her face and her voice. "Viola, I don't—"

"Why!"

"I don't know!" Buffy screamed, her body turned away and her face covered as if she was preparing for a strike. But Viola didn't respond. Cautiously, she uncurled and opened her eyes again.

And what she saw was a mare unrecognizable from both the Viola she knew and the Viola she feared.

Her temper was spent. Even the bottomless anger in her heart was gone, all now laying on the ground. And with that veneer exhausted, it revealed beneath the sea of emotions building the entire time. Shrouded by anger but ever-present, and shown to Buffy for the first time.

Viola was crying.

Contrary to her aggressive attitude earlier, now Viola was turned away, head in her hooves, chest hitching with sobs. Because behind all the anger was a terrible truth she knew had to be true but that she refused to believe until her dying anger insulated it from her no more. The friend she learned to like and the mare she learned to love, in everything she was . . . It was all gone. Perhaps her speech and her "polyamory" would try and convince her otherwise, but actions spoke louder than words. Viola knew enough.

"Why?" she whispered, her voice a feeble and trembling echo of the fiery roar it was just moments ago. "Why is it that you have to leave me like this? Without a word except to abandon me. It's like you don't care for me at all anymore!"

"Vi!" Buffy cried. She wrapped her hooves around Viola, but she could pay it no mind, nor did she physically respond.

"I-I gave you my heart, Buffy, and I trusted you to keep it safe," she continued. "But all you could do was . . . feed it a little and leave it to die. Just like . . . Just like so long ago."

"What do you mean, Viola? What so long ago? Please, talk to me!" Buffy said desperately.

Viola didn't listen; she was ensnared by her own emotions and memories. All she could do was monologue. "Again, and again, and again. Is this how it will always be? Is it all a lie? That they never cared for you, and they never did. Is it ever worth the sacrifice when it feels like this in the end?"

Viola opened her wings and pushed Buffy away from her. She never looked at her, but she addressed her directly. "Leave. I can't bear to see you anymore." It wasn't lost on her that she was asking Buffy to leave her own home, but wherever it was, she needed to be alone.

"N-No! Viola, wh-whatever I did, I'm sorry!"

"Leave."

"P-Please, don’t!"

"Leave." Viola never changed her tone of voice, but her words and stance remained adamant. Her wings remained flared, and she would let nopony in when all they could do was hurt her more. Buffy had only one choice, and Viola would not stop until she took it.

"Leave."

Buffy's words stopped. And slowly, ever so slowly, she heard hoofsteps recede from her and the front door creak as it opened. But it didn't close for a very long time.

She heard a sniffle and a sob, and it wasn't from her. And even though Viola thought she had severed that bond, she felt a pang in her chest, one she wished she didn't have to feel. Damn her. Damn her and everypony she chose to love.

"I-I really care for you, Viola, I really do," Buffy sniffled from the door. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

Viola did not respond. And when she didn't respond for several minutes more, she heard the front door close again.