15. Rude Awakening (Octavia)
The sun was far too high in the sky for my liking when I woke up. Not only that, but – I wiggled my hoof, trying to figure out just why it seemed minutely shorter somehow – something felt strange. The sensation was utterly indescribable, and indescribably strange feelings were not something I wanted to feel when I was nine months pregnant. Moving carefully, hoping not to upset my filly, I rolled out of bed and finally saw the clock. It was almost two in the afternoon. I hadn’t slept in that late in years. I hadn’t slept past ten in the morning in years; not since my first few months in Ponyville, certainly.
I groaned as I slowly made my way to the bathroom to give myself a cursory examination in front of the mirror to look for any abnormalities. It probably wasn’t that important, I reassured myself. I would find that nothing was off, and I could go back to practicing my cello and spending time with Vinyl. At the very least, I felt clearer about that; I saw distractions for what they were, and the most important things in my life were my cello and Vinyl… and our daughter of course. Still, it was amazing how I had allowed myself to forget my priorities.
For instance, this whole thing with Vinyl that had weighed upon my mind so much the last few days, why had I ever let it perturb me so? Vinyl was still Vinyl and– Why was the mirror slightly higher than normal? Actually, everything seemed slightly taller than normal, or maybe… I dashed over to the nightstand and put on my collar and bowtie. They were too loose, a size too big. Unless the world had gotten slightly larger while I slept, I was smaller. My heart caught in my throat. This was… I couldn’t jump to conclusions, but considering the facts that there was almost certainly an age potion in the house, said age potion made Vinyl shrink in size when she regressed to being a teenager, and that I now appeared to be smaller, there was one glaringly obvious conclusion I was trying to discredit.
It was possible something else implausible happened. I didn’t know where the potion was, making it rather difficult for me to drink it. Also, my daughter seemed to be unaffected as she went about her busy day of kicking and squirming inside of me, again making me doubt that the age potion was in play.
But if not it, then what? Neither Lyra nor Vinyl knew any age reversal spells, and I highly doubt Lyra could have been persuaded to use one on me. That left the monkey’s paw as the only plausible candidate, although again, I have no idea why Lyra would meddle. I could conceivably see Vinyl using it, but after yesterday’s good behavior I didn’t think that likely. I yawned again and headed downstairs.
“Morning, Tavi,” Vinyl said, her voice calling to me from the kitchen. “What did you get out of bed last night for?”
I paused midway down the steps at her question. “As far as I can recall, I didn’t leave the bed last night. Well, I left to take a shower a bit before midnight, but you were still wide awake then,” I said, resuming my walk down the stairs. “After that, I slept through the night and the morning apparently. Although…” I didn’t look forward to delivering this bit of news. “Vinyl, I’m smaller this morning. I’m not sure if the potion was at play, but something about me feels off. I have more energy and I feel like I’m properly focused, so many things I thought were important yesterday now seem trivial.”
“Like what?” Vinyl asked, looking like something caught in her throat as I walked into the kitchen.
I smiled and kissed her cheek, feeling a flutter of excitement course up my body. Strange that such a small kiss now seemed so positively charged. The simple act of pressing my flesh against hers, something that had become a daily occurrence after years of marriage now had a new weight. I certainly wasn’t complaining, but it was an entirely different sensation, and it felt like we were having our first kiss again. Blood rushed to my cheeks and I giggled. “Don’t worry, Vinyl, you are the most important pony in my life. Also, you seem to be taking the news that I possibly regressed to being a teenager in good stride.”
“Well, you know,” she said, chuckling, “I was kind of hoping you would drink some of the potion anyways. I guess your subconscious agreed.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, giving her a look of confusion.
“You know, I was just guessing that since you got out of bed last night and didn’t recall it, that maybe you were sleepwalking and drank the potion,” she said before giving me another kiss and causing one of my back legs to almost buck out from under me. The kiss I felt like I was struck by lightning, frying whatever part of my brain was responsible for rational decision making.
“That… that seems reasonable,” I panted after she pulled away from me. I wrapped my forelegs around her to draw her back to me and recapture the electricity. If this was what Vinyl had to deal with, her previous behavior was almost understandable and – I smiled as the warmth of her chest was brought against mine and savored her scent – why wasn’t I worrying? All available evidence suggested I had become a teenager, and yet I was only faintly bothered by that news. Most of me was far too busy enjoying all the delightful sensations to care. “You know, I’m still tired, I think I’ll lie down for a bit, would you care to join me?”
“Sure,” Vinyl said as I led her upstairs, “but if you wanted to screw, you could just say ‘let’s screw.’”
“I was trying to be discreet, Vinyl. Even if the potion has turned me into a teenager, I won’t abandon all self-control,” I said, leading her into our bedroom and slamming the door shut.
***
Several hours later, Vinyl had fallen asleep, taking over most of the bed and pinning me under her legs. As carefully as I could, I extricated myself from her and moved to the study where my cello case was. With the chaos of the last few days, my practice had lapsed, a rather unfortunate fact that bothered me far more this afternoon than it did yesterday. Did my supposed regression have something to do with that?
I took a deep breath as I propped up my cello and took my position. As Grandmother Philharmonica, the pony I had named my cello after would say, an unordered mind led to an unordered life, and right now my mind felt particularly chaotic. It was time to clean house and make sure nothing had been lost by my unexpected transformation. The most pressing concern was that this was going to be a repeat of the changeling venom incident, but how to go about seeing if my values had been compromised from the incident while still inside my head?
I decided that a comparison would be the most effective way to determine whether my mind had been compromised.While under the effects of the changeling venom, my priorities had been shifted dramatically, and everything outside of serving Turn Coat was made completely irrelevant. That was not the case in this instance. The things that were important to me yesterday were important to me today. I could make a convincing argument that my inhibitions had been reduced substantially, but it was worth noting that I was still able to control myself until we reached our bedroom, and I still acted with some discretion and decorum, unlike my wife. More evidence that I was still me. Or at least, mostly me. The most out of character thing was that I was hardly as distressed as I should be.
Then again, why should I be distressed? As was already established, I was still fundamentally myself. Unlike Vinyl, I was still able to think rationally and not allow temperamentality to override my judgment, althoughVinyl had gotten better about that issue over the last few days. My cello playing also gave me the ability to calm and order my mind, something I doubted Vinyl’s DJing did.
With my clarity of mind established, I moved on to determining how pressing an issue my transformation was before deciding “not very.” I was me, I was younger, the uncomfortable age difference between Vinyl and me had vanished, and my filly was still fine. Beyond having to explain what happened to my friends, I was very hard pressed to find a problem. Satisfied that all possible issues had been resolved, I was free to let my mind meander and wander while my hooves went about their business. I made a mental note to find some more challenging pieces. My cello practice had suffered during the past few years, and it was time I remedied that.
Eventually, I heard Vinyl knock on the study door and smiled at her as she walked in. “Did you have a pleasant nap?” I asked, while continuing my practice.
“Yeah,” she said, grinning at me as she took a seat at our table, “I was pretty tired. Actually kind of surprised that you didn’t get some sleep.”
“Well, I had plenty of last sleep last night, and I needed to think. You know my thinking is best when I have a cello and bow in my hooves,” I said, giving her a quick smile of my own as I moved to a new piece to practice. “I need to process how I felt about becoming a teenager and the general madness of the last few days, and it turns out I am surprisingly fine with it.”
“Really?” she asked, unable to keep the enthusiasm out of her voice.
“Really.” I nodded at her. “As far as I can tell, I am still essentially myself, just a younger version thereof, which is good news for me, but raises some concerns about your actions over the last few days.”
“Like what?” my wife said, her hoof moving to rub the goggles that hung down from her neck.
“Like the fact that you seemed perfectly willing to abandon me and sleep with some mare you barely knew,” I said, feeling a pit of anger suddenly blossom in my stomach causing me to stop playing and glare at her.
“I was upset, you know, you pissed me off, I wasn’t thinking clearly, and I regret it. Like… I shouldn’t have done that, and you know I’m sorry.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that. What worries me is that if I am fundamentally unaltered after consuming the potion, then that would mean that that… betrayal was always lurking somewhere inside of you. Either that, or you are completely unable to control your impulses.”
Vinyl blinked and took a step back. “Really? That’s… yeah! I might be impulsive, but you know, you… are you really going to get upset with me over this? I thought we’d moved past that.”
“I’m not upset with you,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm and beat down my anger. “What I’m saying is that perhaps it might benefit you to work on your self-control. That’s all.”
“You said you liked my impulsiveness,” she said, the faintest note of pleading in her voice. Apparently my comments had upset her, and that was the furthest thing from my mind. Further evidence of her inability to control herself, I suppose.
“It’s endearing enough, and your impulsivity is one of the reasons I love you, but when it leads you to cheat on me, then it becomes something needing correcting.” My scowl softened. She was still my wife and I loved her. Ponies made mistakes and that brief look of pain on her face made me feel like a monumental ass. While my criticisms were still absolutely valid, I suppose I could let it slide this time. My mind filled with memories of our afternoon together, and my criticisms felt trivial as I felt myself become flushed. I smiled at her. “That’s… I’m sorry. You’re right, ponies make mistakes, I was just so convinced the potion had affected your judgment, that when I realized it hadn’t, I struggled to imagine what might lead the mare I’d married to flirt with some clubber in a Canterlot night club.”
Vinyl smiled at me and draped her foreleg over my shoulder, causing me to give a rather content sigh and rest my head against my shoulder. “You know, I think you had it right, the hormones did… well, they make me feel really strongly about things, and I guess it might’ve blindsided me Sunday. Good thing I have you here to keep me on a tight leash, right?”
“Indeed,” I said, trying not to let the mental image of Vinyl on a leash compromise my judgment. “Even as a teenager I possessed a degree of self-control most adults lacked. I suppose it came with needing to teach myself a skill and master it in the span of a few years.”
“Yeah,” she said, stroking my foreleg with the hoof she had draped over me. “Well, this time you can actually loosen up and have some fun, right?”
“I suppose a few off days wouldn’t kill me, but I’m sure you will want a mature, responsible adult to plan out the next month or so?”
“What’s going on?” she asked, furrowing her brow in confusion.
“Simple, since this whole ordeal was kicked off by your desire to get back to your DJing roots, I had the idea of arranging a few shows for you at some of Canterlot and Manehattan’s premier clubs. Of course, I might need your help in identifying their premier clubs.”
Vinyl laughed and drew me closer to her. “I can do that. You are just determined to make me feel awful for… you know.”
“Not at all,” I said, pushing myself up to my hooves and heading towards the study door. “I know you feel awful for it, I’m just trying to show that I can support you. Besides, I might like putting on a few recitals while I’m back in Canterlot.” I laughed and shook my head. “You and the cello, that’s really all I need. Funny how I could forget that.”
“So… you’re happy that you drank the potion?” she asked, as I opened the door. I looked back to see her glancing at the floor nervously.
“While I wish I knew the circumstances behind my drinking of the potion, I suppose it isn’t as bad as I suspected, especially since our daughter is fine. Though… you didn’t have anything to do with this, did you? I can’t imagine you dosing me with the potion while I slept; that would be reckless even for you.”
“Nope!” she said, giving me her biggest smile as she headed towards the door. “I was as surprised as you were about that this morning. Anyways, I’m kind of hungry. Let’s have some dinner, plan out this tour, and maybe finish by eating in bed.”
“You know I don’t like eating food in our bedroom,” I said, following her to the kitchen.
“Yeah, I know,” she said. There was a brief moment of confusion on my part before realization dawned, and I suddenly found myself absolutely starved.
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Oh, Octavia. When you realize the truth, I'm fairly certain your marriage will come to an end.
4697691 Yeah, she's probably right.
Um, I think the whole chapter is in Italics... If it was intentional, alright... I was half expecting for Octavia to flip out here...
4697792 Oh crap it is. I need to find the broken tag. Thanks for the info!
Edit: And it's resolved.
Uh oh. Not one mention of the baby. This is bad.
4698176 I would suggest rereading, because I can see at least two references in the first five paragraphs.
I think there is a third one, but I have to get back to writing Thursday's chapter, and I'm not exactly sure where it is.
4698202
Oh, my mistake then. I guess I was confused as how she could stand up and play the cello while still being very pregnant.
4698334 I'm going to say that ponies in Equestria don't have their mobility restricted as much when they're pregnant. There's a decent enough analog with our horses I think as, correct me if I'm wrong, it's really just humans who have an awful time with pregnancy due to the fact that our babies have massive basketball heads.
I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Because Tavi's regression was the result of a monkey's paw wish, this is going to blow up in Vinyl's face at some point. I foresee two possible scenarios. 1: Tavi finds out that Vinyl had wished for her to drink the potion using the monkey's paw, resulting in a huge fight and a whole heap of drama. That's best case scenario. 2: Something involving a Pie gene induced freak out on Tavi's part. I seem to recall a few chapters back mentioning that Tavi was off her meds. I'm kinda hoping for the latter.
4699824 I can not comment one way or another. The last idea is cool though.
How did it take me this long to realize this is a story where characters don't act like themselves, I loved the royal ponyville orchestra so seeing these two act like this actually scares me a little, I'm sure that wasn't your intent...maybe. Anyway, I'll try and get through the rest of this story, but yes, I did notice Octavia's change.
I read the top comment. Re-thought about how I also noticed Tavi's change (slightly disconcerning, but I was willing to roll with it). Was willing to be patient, hope for the best (because when has that never gone wrong?
) then I remembered.
In the past (what, four? five? more?) years Tavi has been living in Ponyville, the town has been out to get her and her Pie gene. This, this is going to be bad. No relaxing medications she can take. Sure, the pressure isn't there as much (no longer talking with parents after all) but no grown up (mental?) stability to deal with the Pie gene.