“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
-John F. Kennedy
“You don’t have very much to say, do you?” Cedar and Vinyl watched from a small distance as Sky playfully chased the three fillies around the yard in the fleeting sunlight of the evening. Vinyl had relegated herself to staying on the sidelines and observing, just making sure that everything was going well.
“I don’t know what I can say.” Vinyl shrugged, responding to the stallion at her side. “I’m happy that they’re happy and I’m glad that Lily’s okay.” Vinyl stated flatly. She wasn’t going to go into a breakdown or get all sappy like she had earlier with Twinkle. At least, she wouldn’t try to.
“We can both agree on that.” Cedar watched as Rose galloped across the crowded yard and tackled Daisy. “I was almost sure this was going to be a disaster, but I guess life can surprise you sometimes.” Glory laughed as she snatched up Rose and took her a few feet off the ground then setting her back down.
“Yeah, something like that.” Glory spread her wings, pointing to certain feathers and talking to the three fillies that were now interested in her appendages. “She is really good with foals…” It had been too long since Vinyl had actually watched Sky interact with foals, it was so calming to watch in a way. Did it bring up some anger in Vinyl? Of course it did. Imagine if Sky had been this way as a mother, she would’ve been great.
“Are you planning on visiting often?” Cedar changed the subject for one reason or another, either way she was happy not to get into it. “You and Skyward are free to come down anytime, y’know. My parents have passed, and I don’t have any other family left so you two are the closest thing that we have to kin. It might be nice to have some family around every once in awhile, no matter how distant.”
“Sounds like you’re softening up a bit, Cedar.” Vinyl chided the stallion, giving him a playful nudge with her knee. “Starting to warm up to us?” she was so used to dealing with the stoic and easily joked away facade of Twinkle, that she assumed the same might work on Cedar. The short answer was, it didn’t.
“I’m trying to build bridges, Vinyl Scratch.” the gardener retorted bluntly. “None of this will do any good if we don’t try to improve it further.” He turned to Vinyl, a look of determination across his face. “These girls deserve more than they have, all of them. You’re free to help me give them what they deserve.”
“How about we focus on what’s happening right now before we roll into the future?” Twinkle sidled up next to Vinyl and slid into the conversation. “It’s been a pretty heavy day so far, I think we should give it a little time to ferment before we act on it.” Cedar shot him a harsh look, which Twinkle smiled away. “I’m not saying it’s not a good idea, I just want to see how tomorrow goes before we sign off on anything concrete.”
“Alright, I guess we’ll discuss it tomorrow.” Cedar relented, frowning at the interrupting guard. “Speaking of tomorrow-” The stallion started up again, easily moving between the topics. “-I have to make dinner and get the girls ready for bed. We have a lot of work to do in the morning.”
“The sun isn’t even down yet.” Vinyl remarked, her eyes finding the sun on the horizon. Not to mention it was a weekend, y’know the time when you were actually supposed to stay up late. Who in the world plans to do stuff in the morning on the weekend?
“I’m aware.” Cedar grunted as he turned his attention to the foals and Glory. “We have obligations- Girls! Time to head inside!-a farm outside of town needs our help with their harvest. You all are free to join us if you like, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind the extra hooves and horns.” Cedar raised an eyebrow as the girls came racing over to him. “Go set the table, alright? I’ll be there in a minute.”
The three fillies gave an ‘Alright Daddy!’ all in unison and then sped inside. Vinyl briefly smiled, watching as they bound happily to the house and disappeared from view. She was glad that the adoption revelation wasn’t keeping them down.
“Do you need any help with dinner, Cedar?” Glory trotted up to the group, fixing her mane. “I’m not the greatest cook, but I have the experience of cooking for foals.”
“I reckon I could use the extra help.” He turned back to Shining and Vinyl. “You’re all free to stick around for dinner if you want. We’d be glad to have you.” Vinyl squirmed in place a little. For some reason the thought of sitting at a table together did not fill her with any good feelings.
“We’re good.” Twinkle spoke up for her, thankfully picking up on her body language. “We’ll take a walk around town and see if anything catches our eye.” Vinyl liked that idea a lot more. A bit of exploring would do her mind some good.
“Well we might be in bed by the time you get back. Can’t promise anything. So you might wanna let Glory know where you’re staying so she can meet you there.” Twinkle opened his mouth, probably to inform Glory of the address of their hotel, but he was cut off by the pegasus.
“A-actually I was wondering if I could stay here tonight.” Cedar raised his eyebrow once again. “You don’t have to let me...it’s just...I was never able to sleep in the same place as Lily and it would mean a lot to me.” Vinyl approved of her sister’s initiative, and she further approved of not having to spend the night with her. Celestia knew how many fights that would cause.
“If you don’t mind taking the couch, I suppose.” Sky nodded eagerly, signalling that the couch was fine. “Well that’s settled.” He turned back to VInyl and Twinkle. “I suppose we’ll be seeing you two tomorrow, then.”
“Yep.” Vinyl responded curtly. “See you tomorrow, Sky.” There was an awkward pause as everypony just stood around, waiting. It was almost too much to bear, so Vinyl spoke up to break it off. “We’ll be off, then.” Vinyl turned and started walking, Twinkle close behind. For now, she was just glad to be out of there.
“So you didn’t like the thought of a big family meal?” Twinkle gave Vinyl a poke in the ribs as they walked. She just sighed in response. It was a lot more complicated than just not liking it, it was a lot deeper.
“I just-it was going way too fast, alright?” Vinyl expected to see a very sympathetic Twinkle out of the corner of her eye, but instead found the stallion grinning. “C’mon Twinkle, I’m trying to be honest here and you’re smiling about it.”
“Sorry.” Twinkle said, that damn smile still not leaving his face. “It’s just a little ridiculous. ‘Too fast’ like it’s a first date trying to score or something. It’s family, Scratch. There’s no such thing as too fast, just the default speed. I don’t think that kindness has a speed limit, after all.”
“Try not having one for about half a decade and get back to me on that.” Vinyl shot back angrily. “The last family dinner I had was a right before everything hit the fan. So excuse me for not being totally open to the idea.”
“Alright, alright.” Twinkle said, backing away from the subject. “So what are you feeling for dinner? I kinda want something simple.” Vinyl was glad to be off of the ‘family’ topic and onto something else.
“Yeah, simple sounds good.” Vinyl responded. She would be cool with just a sandwich or the like, something they could take to their hotel room and chow down there. She didn’t want to hang around the ponies here and get stared at. “As long as we can take it to go, I’m good for whatever we find.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Twinkle agreed as they walked through town. Usually this would be the time where they would have a little conversation about something that happened recently. It might even lead to some sort of breakthrough or something. Today was a bit different.
Usually they would be lost in the sea of constantly churning Canterlot drama, their little conversations falling beneath the waves to where only they would find them. Here in Ponyville there were no bustling crowds, just small groups of ponies trotting around listening. Vinyl would rather her life and it’s associated drama not be floating around Ponyville. She had enough to deal with as it was.
While their little talks were nice, Vinyl was content to just walk in silence from time to time. Like she had told Celestia at the beginning of this debacle; she had wanted a good looking guard to look after her. The rare moments of silence were helpful to appreciate how that wish had been granted.
The duo stopped at a little shop around the corner from their hotel and picked up a few sandwiches and a rather large sweetroll to go along with it. They got to their ‘hotel’ soon after and saw it consisted of little more than a small two story house. Nothing fancy or special that separated it from any other building around it.
“I have no clue what I was expecting.” Twinkle piped up, looking at the building with intense scrutiny. “It’s not like there was some massive building breaking the skyline. I don’t know, maybe my idea of what a hotel is supposed to look like has been a little spoiled by Canterlot standards.”
“Go to the outskirts of Las Pegasus, Twinkle. You’ll be begging for something like this.” Vinyl thought back to the various seedy motels she had stayed in over the years, and they made this little house seem like a five-star affair. “You got that letter from the mayor?” Twinkle pulled the letter from inside his armor. “Good.”
The pair of pearlescent ponies plodded into the lobby of the ‘hotel’. Surprisingly it didn’t look like an ordinary house at all. There was a desk on the opposite side of the room with a bevy of keys on hooks behind it. There was no pony behind the desk, though.
“Hello?” Shining called into the building as they approached the desk. “Anyone here? They mayor sent me.” That caused a stir from somewhere in the building and before Shining could react, a small cream colored earth pony popped up from behind the desk. Her two-tone pink and blue mane ended in curls and hung just above her sapphire eyes.
“The mayor sent you?” The filly spoke calmly, but with an edge of skepticism well beyond her age. “Did he give you a letter?” Shining presented the letter, a very puzzled expression on his face. The filly read over it a few times before turning around and grabbing a set of keys with her mouth and put them on the desk. “Second floor, third door on the left.” Twinkle took the keys and watched as the filly disappeared under the desk once more.
“That was really weird…” Vinyl mumbled to her compatriot. She didn’t want to dwell on the idiosyncrasies of these rural ponies. It wasn’t her problem to deal with, well not right now. She would let the little filly be weird all she wanted, so long as it didn’t interfere with her own life. Vinyl looked to Twinkle for some sort of affirmation, but just recieved her own puzzled look mirrored.
It took a second for both of them to move passed the silly filly, but eventually the duo shook the strange experience off and broke off from the reception desk. Vinyl followed her guard up the stairs and down the hall in silence, not wanting to offend the filly by saying something inflammatory. Not really a Vinyl thing to do, but she was trying a lot more these days to not be so...what’s the word? Oh yeah, a bitch. She was really trying not to be one.
Twinkle stopped at a door and stuck the key that the filly had imparted to them in the lock and turned until a satisfying click echoed through the empty hall. As the door was pushed open, they were met with a quaint room plastered with neutral browns and tans. Two single beds sat closely together in the room, the only feature save for a lonely faux-leather chair and a picture of a sailboat that looked vaguely familiar on the wall.
It was definitely a hotel room, they all looked the same on some weird base level. Almost as if there were some consortium of interior designers that set standards for how bland and non-offensive a hotel room should be.
“Welcome to paradise.” Twinkle said, stepping to the side and allowing Vinyl to enter the room unimpeded. She wasn’t so sure about paradise, but it was a welcome reprieve from the seemingly constant turmoil of her life. That was enough and it would certainly work for now.
“Sweet.” Vinyl heaved her bag and tossed it on the far bed, the one closest to the window. “I call the this one. Dibs, mine, hooves off, etcetera.” The unicorn lazily trotted over to the bed and flopped onto the mattress. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, but Vinyl had slept in worse places. She would manage on a low-quality hotel bed for a night or two.
“Are you doing okay, Scratch?” Twinkle settled on the bed that Vinyl decided was his and turned to the mare. “I know you’re not entirely happy with the end result, but I think it’s gone well so far.” Vinyl appreciated his optimism, but she just couldn’t share it with him. The hurt was still there, lessened a bit but it was still there deep down.
“I expected something different.” Vinyl admitted quietly. “I already told you I can’t really forgive Sky for everything, but…” Vinyl took a deep breath and rested her hooves under her chin. “I expected...I dunno, relief. Like, after I found out Lily was okay, I thought that actually seeing her would bring some kind of peace.” She looked up, expecting to see Twinkle ignoring her and polishing his armor or something. Instead, she only saw her companion staring intently at her, hooves crossed and a thoughtful look plastered across his face. She quickly looked away to break eye contact. “Instead, I’m just drowning in a sea of what-ifs and could’ve-beens, y’know?” Vinyl felt her heart sink a bit lower as the roiling waves of the previously mentioned sea pulled her head under.
What if Sky had kept Lily? What if Vinyl had been given custody? Could they have been a family? Would it have pushed Vinyl to be better? Would she still be here, or would she be a better pony? Could all of this have been avoided…?
“Scratch…” Vinyl looked up to see Twinkle off of his bed and kneeling in front of her. “I know there’s nothing I can really say to make you feel better about any of this.” The stallion closed his eyes, as if admitting he couldn’t help broke his heart in oh so many ways. “I want you to know that, even though you’re a stubborn, hard-headed, sarcastic, loud troublemaker….well, I couldn’t be more proud of you.” Twinkle rested his head on the edge of the bed, so it was even with her own. “You’ve come so far since we’ve started, and...well, I’ve come to admire you.” Vinyl looked up, through the fringe of her messy blue mane and saw a truly rare sight.
Shining had a light blush across his cheeks. She would interrupt him, but she wanted to allow Twinkle let it all out. He deserved it as much as she did at this point.
“You’re confident, and you’re not afraid to voice your opinion. I’m not like that a lot.” Twinkle continued, a small amount of shame coating his words. “I can be like that around you, because you’re okay with it. But at work, or with my parents…? No, I could never be.” Twinkle let out a deep, prolonged sigh. “If it wasn’t for you, I would’ve never broken up with Cadance. I would’ve let it happen and keep going like it never did.” Twinkle’s voice lowered, to a barely audible level. “I would’ve let it pass and it would’ve ate at me forever.”
There was a deep shame in those words, coming from a very personal place. Vinyl wasn’t sure she had earned the privilege of access to such a place. It was more Twinkle’s style to pry into other ponies’ business, not let others into his.
“I’m glad you did it.” Vinyl finally spoke after a prolonged silence. “I mean, you needed to grow some balls, anyway.” Vinyl said with her almost trademark smirk. “But also because I don’t want to see you hurt yourself like that. Trust me, I’ve bottled that kind of thing up before, and it’s not good for you.” Vinyl took the sarcastic edge off of her voice and started talking to Twinkle like she always meant to, as a friend she could never afford to lose. “Letting something like that fester...it hurts more than letting it out ever could. It eats away at who you are, and you’ll lose sight of what’s really important.” Vinyl was doing this completely off of the cuff, and maybe it showed in the blatant hypocrisy of telling somepony else to move on, but she was okay with that. Twinkle needed to hear this. “You’ll lose sight of what’s right in front of you, and that’s the worst thing imaginable.”
“What was right in front of you?” Twinkle asked quietly.
“I don’t know, I couldn’t see it.” Vinyl admitted. “I wish I knew, it would have changed something, maybe I would be somewhere else with another pony. Who knows, I might’ve found a new family.” Vinyl didn’t like to think of what she missed while in her haze of self-pity and emotional repression, it was just filled with more what-ifs and could’ve-beens’. “If I could go back and take whatever chances I missed, I would in an instant. I would take every shot and live without regret.”
Before Vinyl could continue her little monologue, she was cut short by a pair of lips pressed up against her own. The shock of such an event did not even register when she saw the brilliant pair of cobalt eyes staring at her, a rush of exhilaration igniting them.
“No regrets, right?” Twinkle asked timidly, a nervous smile playing across his face.