Soft blue light suddenly lit up the darkness, the ground sparkling like tiny diamonds or shattered glass. The sound of a door opening accompanied the sudden illumination. Mixed in was a distinctly feminine grunt, followed by a sharp gasp. There was silence for a moment, broken by the seemingly unnaturally loud sound of a door closing and a lock clicking into place.
A Unicorn, coat as white as the snow on the ground, glared at the door that had just closed and locked itself. A frown marred the Unicorn’s features and she gave the side of the building she had just left a swift kick. The kick dislodged a bit of snow from somewhere above her. The small but still cold slush ball dropped onto her head in a way that would have been comical if it had happened to anyone else but her. Her horn fizzled and went out.
The Unicorn sighed and turned, trudging away.
It was late. Very late. Any one sensible, pony or otherwise, would be snug in bed, dozing and dreaming of the day ahead.
Vinyl Scratch never considered herself sensible.
For example, in addition to the lateness of the hour, it was also cold. Freezing cold in fact. Vinyl’s every annoyed breath crystallized in front of her. A sensible pony would have put on a jacket or sweater. All Vinyl had on was a faded purple scarf thinner than a hooker’s panties.
Vinyl grumbled under her visible breath, snow crunching underhoof. She prayed to Celestia, and Luna for good measure, that Octavia was sound asleep. The cellist usually went to bed at a reasonable hour, but if she was on a practice binge, or marathoning a TV show, she would be up. And if she was awake when Vinyl came home, or worse was woken by the disk jockey’s entry, she would give Vinyl a lengthy lecture.
The last thing Vinyl wanted at that moment in time was a speech about proper time management and proper winter wear.
Vinyl winced as a cold breeze blew across her eyes and inadequately protected face. She had a mind to take her glasses from their perch behind her horn, but then she might as well close her eyes and try to make it home on memory alone.
Vinyl sighed, shivered, and staggered onward.
The town was different at night. Quiet, almost frighteningly so. There were dark clouds overhead, blocking out the stars and moon, but thankfully not dumping snow or rain on her head. But, the darkness seemed to press heavily down on the Unicorn as she trudged home, making the streetlights seem dimmer than usual.
And then after what was either an eternity or merely a few minutes, Vinyl found herself standing outside her front door. Vinyl cursed into the damp fabric across her mouth as she fumbled with her keys. Her hooves were cold and wet, and every movement seemed to make them feel all the colder.
After a moment, Vinyl swore a bit louder than before and dared to fire up her horn. The surrounding snow was lit up with a faint blue light as a similarly colored aura surrounded her keys and lined the appropriate one up with the lock.
Her magic hummed, sounding simultaneously unnaturally loud and oddly muted.
Vinyl shook off the feeling and inserted the key, turning it. The lock clicking open might was well have been the groans of an ancient mechanism coming to life with how loud it seemed. Again Vinyl shook her head, mumbling something about too many Daring Do books.
Vinyl held up a hoof and pushed her door open, the hinges creaking like they were auditioning for a cheap horror flick. Vinyl sighed and trotted inside, pushing the door closed behind her.
The door closed with a familiar thunk, cutting off what little light the streetlamps had offered. Vinyl was saved from being plunged into darkness by the glow of her horn. She blinked and looked around, seeming to find herself in a dark, featureless expanse.
For the third time Vinyl shook her head, muttering a few annoyances at herself. She wasn’t some foal who was scared of the dark. She was a big, tough, mare who clearly needed to get some sleep. She was tired and a tired Unicorn’s light was all the dimmer.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Vinyl peeled the thin scarf from her face and neck, tossing it aside. Octavia would probably have something to say about that in the morning, but Vinyl didn’t really care. She trotted forward, breathing a quiet sigh of relief as she passed the couch and confirmed that she was indeed home and not lost in a dark wasteland.
But, as Vinyl made her way towards the stairs, she felt a cold breeze across her barrel. Her fur stood on end and she bit back a loud swear. She turned and followed the frigid air to its source. An open window. Vinyl scowled and pushed the window closed with some force, the dull, quiet thud booming in her ears.
Vinyl shivered again as she turned around and walked back towards the stairs. She frowned as she tried to puzzle out why, on a night like this, Octavia would have opened a window. She soon came across a likely answer in the form of a few blackened logs sitting haphazardly in the fireplace. Vinyl’s frown became a grin as she realized that for the first time in a long time, she could lecture Octavia on something.
The smile followed Vinyl across the room and up the stairs. However, on the landing of the second floor, the smile faltered.
Vinyl extinguished her horn and stood still, straining her ears. She could hear… something. Quiet as she could manage, Vinyl crept forward, the carpet helpfully muffling her steps.
The hallway felt a thousand times longer than it ever felt before, but Vinyl kept her slow creep forward steady. Every step brought her closer to the door to Octavia’s room, which was at the end of the hallway. And every step made the sounds just a bit clearer.
About halfway there, Vinyl saw the door to her room. Whatever Octavia was doing she could simply ignore it in favor of going into her room and snuggling underneath the covers. Maybe ask Octavia what had happened over frosted flakes in the morning.
Vinyl stared at her door, the lure of a warm bed tempting after the cold of the night. But, after a moment's hesitation, Vinyl pressed on.
Vinyl's eyes began to adjust to the darkness, yet the hallway still seemed impossibly long. The walls and carpet, their colors reduced to gray, stretched off into a vanishing point blacker than the space between stars.
The noise persisted, gradually clearing into wet sounds. Vinyl felt the faintest of blushes appear on her cheeks. Octavia wasn't actually... getting laid was she?
With the embarrassment came a gentle sense of relief. Nothing wrong with a little late night pleasure was there?
Vinyl paused. Her curiosity was satisfied. She could easily turn tail and go back to her soft and warm bed. And yet, her curiosity wasn't really satisfied. Who, in Celestia's green Equestria, would Octavia be fucking?
Vinyl bit her lip. She could just ask Octavia in the morning. Of course, the cellist would no doubt just deny anything happened. But, with every step forward, Vinyl ran the risk of being seen. Octavia was a normally calm and collected mare, but her fuse could burn out quick if given the proper incentive. Catching her nosey roommate peeking in on her sex life would probably suffice.
Vinyl swallowed and tiptoed forward. After going a little ways further, Vinyl spied a wedge of soft rosy light falling across the carpet. The door to Octavia's room stood ajar.
Vinyl couldn't see inside, but she could certainly hear a whole lot better. The wet noises seemed to be steady gulps, accompanied by muffled moans.
Vinyl blushed harder, but couldn't keep from grinning. Not only was Octavia having a late-night guest, but she was sucking them off on top of it. And she was enjoying it.
The notion to leave flickered faintly before being stamped out. Vinyl wouldn't be able to sleep without knowing. She got down low and did her best army crawl up to the door, peeking past it and into the room.
The room was bathed a gentle, pinkish light from, of all things, a lava lamp. Vinyl's eyes moved from the lamp to the bed. Sitting upon it was a tangle of limbs, each thick and seemingly covered in scales. It took Vinyl a moment to realize that it was all actually one limb, a tail coiled up.
Vinyl never knew Octavia had a scalie fetish.
The tail wiggled about, its owner coming into Vinyl's view. She wasn't shaped like a pony, her torso humanoid. It was a she, what with tits like those. But for once, a non-equestrian's tits didn't hold Vinyl's attention.
The scalie's body was pointed upwards, head thrown back. It wasn't obvious at first in the soft light, but her body was bulging unnaturally. Stretched by what she was consuming.
Or rather, who.
Octavia was up to her chest in the scalie's throat. One leg was jutting out before her while the other was held to her mouth in a successful attempt to muffle herself. Vinyl only caught a glimpse of the Earth Pony's face before she ducked back around the door, but she thought Octavia looked enraptured.
Vinyl wiggled away from the door, her breathing shallow and quick. She must be hallucinating. Someone slipped her something and she was seeing things. And hearing them.
Vinyl shut her eyes and grimaced, hearing the next wet gulp clear as day. She thought she could detect a soft tittering mixed in, but she didn't want to think about it. Not that wanting did her any good. Images came unbidden to her mind; slick, pulsating flesh swallowing up a body covering in sweat and saliva matted fur. The pleasured look on Octavia's face flashed through her mind. Pure, unbridled enjoyment.
A few slick sounds cut through the haze, followed by a slightly louder gulp. A tremor ran through Vinyl's body. The swallow had the sound of finality. A satisfied sigh emanated from the room along with the wet sound of someone licking their lips.
Vinyl heard herself whimper, her hoof quickly clamping over her mouth.
The air suddenly became still and silent. Vinyl froze, not daring to breath.
A solid thump made her jump. The sound of something heavy sliding across the floor made her scramble to her hooves. Vinyl imagined herself running in place, like in a cartoon. But, unlike cartoons, she didn't suddenly speed off right as the monster grabbed for her.
A thick limb tripped her hooves, making her fall flat on her face. She tried to get up, but the tail was already coiling around her body. She was lifted up into the air like a child's dolls and pulled into the rosy hued room.
Vinyl flailed and kicked, twisting this way and that in the monster's grip. She threw her head back, opening her mouth to scream. The cry died in her throat as she found a reptilian face staring down at her. The expression was one of bemusement, the whole head tilted like a dog.
They stayed locked in that position for a few moments. Vinyl couldn’t breath, couldn’t move. All she could do was stare into a pair of snake-like eyes that regarded her like she was some sort of oddity.
Vinyl’s ears flicked as she detected a quiet gurgle coming from just behind her head. The scalie broke eye contact for a moment to look down at herself and then back to Vinyl. Scaly green lips suddenly broke into an amused smile. The scalie reached down and plucked Vinyl’s glasses from her head.
The smile suddenly split opened, revealing pearly white teeth. Vinyl started to struggle again, her mind now filled with bloody visions. But, the teeth were soon forgotten as the smile split wider and wider, revealing a saliva slicked maw. Strings of drool dripped down over Vinyl’s face, warm and sticky.
A brilliantly red tongue snaked out, flicking through the air. It slithered down and wrapped around Vinyl’s horn, making her flinch. Vinyl's eyes followed the tongue from its tip down into the mouth and right to the opening of the scalie's throat.
Warm breath washed over her face at the scalie suddenly plunged downward, engulfing Vinyl’s head. Hands gripped her barrel as the coils beneath her began pushing up. The tongue left her horn and flicked down across her body as she was crammed into the scalie’s throat. Each rolling gulp echoed in her ears as she was literally eaten alive.
Vinyl didn’t do much more than flinch and shiver, each breath shorter and quicker than the last. She only barely registered the tongue licking her back hooves and then they were soon pulled into the same consuming warmth as the rest of her. She felt herself turn upside down, the scalie apparently rightening herself. The slick muscles around her rippled as one last swallow sent her surging down the scalie’s gullet.
And after the initial sliding drop, she hit a bend in the tunnel. Vinyl grunted as she was forcibly squeezed past, but thankfully was now lying on her back. After that, the innards eased down into a gentle, rolling rhythm that carried her slowly and steadily deeper.
Vinyl began thrashing around, struggling desperately and fruitlessly against the walls of her prison. But after a minute she gave up and simply laid there, blind in the darkness of her surroundings, listening to each little squish and gurgle the scalie’s guts made. Her panicked breathing slowed to a far calmer tempo. To her surprise, the air didn’t stink of rotten meat. In fact, it smelled of very little.
A familiar coo drifted to her ears from somewhere up ahead. Vinyl’s ear twitched and she craned her head back. Tentatively, she lit up her horn, its light making the fluid slick walls glisten dully. All she could see ahead was more stomach.
Vinyl wormed her fore hooves up in front of her, grunting softly with the effort. She began to pull herself forward, back hooves pushing more or less uselessly against the surrounding flesh. She didn’t have to go very far to find the source of the noise.
Octavia Melody laid there, snuggled up in her new home, eyes lidded in bliss. They fluttered when the light of Vinyl’s horn fell across them, reluctantly opening.
“Vinyl, is that you?” Octavia slurred drunkenly, asking the pointless question. The cellist smirked, laughing quietly at a joke only she seemed privy to. “Well, I see you have met my friend. Oh, I wish you had come home sooner, Vinyl. It’s not decent to be out this late.”
Vinyl couldn’t find the words to give voice to her bafflement.
Octavia moaned softly and laid her head down, eyes closing. “Oh well, I’ll explain everything in the morning. Good night, Vinyl.”
And just like that, Octavia was sound asleep, snoring softly.
A particularly large glob of viscous slime dripped from above, hitting Vinyl’s horn. Her horn fizzled quietly and went out.