I had to wait for the right time to strike. Accusing somepony of being involved in an affair wasn't exactly something you just throw out there over dinner. No, I needed the perfect occasion.
It was a lazy afternoon only a few days later when my opportunity senses tingled. Velvet was humming a song and I could hear movement outside my bedroom, so I paused my writing to take a look at what she was up to.
Velvet was standing upright on the tip of one hoof, the other curled around to reach for her raised forelegs. She pushed off to leap into the air, twirled the raised leg around and down to carry her with momentum, and landed on the opposite hoof. One foreleg swept down and when she turned to face where I stood in the doorway, I saw a look of bliss that shattered into a grin upon eye contact.
"Oh! Hey." She dropped down onto all fours. "Sup?"
I blinked a few times. "What was that?"
With a wave of her hoof, she tried to dismiss the question. "Nothing much, just practice."
"Uh-huh." Attempting to look casual, I leaned against the doorframe. "You seem like you're in a good mood. Things going well between you and Crystal?"
Her brow arched at the name. It was, well, a reaction. Not quite one of guilt or fear of her secret being exposed, but I had to take this slowly. "Uh, I guess? Why?"
"Why? I mean, we've been living together just about a month now. Sorry if I'm the only one interested in the wellbeing of my roommate."
Yeah, well done, Silver. Calm and casual, my arse. That was more than a little foalish, but I added a light grin to try to make it playful.
Velvet seemed none the wiser as she snickered, turning to prance her way to the kitchen. "We're just roommates. We don't have to be friends."
For some reason, that statement hurt, which gave me pause. Why? It was like she had thrust a wall between us, and I really hadn't expected it. I guess a part of me thought we were friends, sort of, in a way.
"Oh," was all I could say.
She froze mid-step and, slowly, angled her head to look over her shoulder. "Unless you're saying you want to be friends?"
My ears went flat. This conversation wasn't going how I had expected it at all. Why was I the one in the spotlight? "It'd make living together easier, wouldn't it?"
In contrast, her ears perked straight up and she turned to face me completely. "Of course it would! I just figured you didn't like me all that much."
"Why would you think that?" I moved to flop onto one of the sitting pillows with a petulant huff. "Just because I don't engage with you much and hole up in my room most of the time doesn't mean I dislike you. I thought we were getting along pretty well for two complete strangers living together."
She broke into a chime of laughter. Normally, she more barked the sound, like the amusement had snuck up on her, but this was something different—it sounded like she was delighted. "Hey, that's great news as far as I'm concerned!" A wicked grin overtook her muzzle. "I was gonna give you space until you'd, you know, recovered, but if you're already ready to be friends, then let's do it, buddy."
Oh, Celestia, I did not like the way she said that. I shrunk into the pillow as she stepped closer. "Uh-huh. And what does this new relationship status entail?"
"Always perceptive at the most random times," Velvet remarked with another laugh. "So, you saw me practicing, right? I've got a show tomorrow night. I have a friend who was going to go with her coltfriend, but he's out of town on a surprise work thing and she's embarrassed because they got front-row seats."
My brow furrowed. "Why is that embarrassing, and what does that have to do with me?"
Velvet rolled her eyes, as if it was totally obvious. Well, it wasn't. "Because that means there will be an empty seat. In the front row."
"Uh-huh."
She noted that I still didn't understand the importance, so she sighed and elaborated, "I dance for the Royal Ballet of Equestria, Silv. We don't have empty seats, and we definitely don't have empty front-row seats."
It took me a moment to reel from that new information. Even a totally clueless pony like me knew that the Royal Ballet of Equestria was a big deal. My roommate was a big deal.
"So?" she asked, and I realized there had been a question there.
I blinked a few times, gazing at her with newfound respect. "Sorry. What?"
"Will you be a seat warmer? Nightin and I don't have any friends that are available on short notice." The grin returned in full force. "Buddy."
It's hard to really complain about a free ticket to one of the premier ballet companies in Equestria. A part of me suspected there was more to the request, like this 'Nightin' pony was a gabby never-stop-talker or something equally annoying.
"Sure," I said, forgetting my prior ulterior motives.
"Great!" Her tail swished. "Well, if you don't mind, I've still got the wiggles. Which is a totally professional term, I'll have you know, so stop grinning."
I didn't.
With a huff, she tipped her nose into the air and trotted into her bedroom. A moment later, she came back out with a record player balanced on her back, which she slipped onto the floor next to me.
"I've got my biggest role yet, so I want to make sure it's just perfect."
I glanced down to see a record primed and ready, labeled: 'Sleeping Mare — Prologue — Entrance of the Fairies'. "Okay," I said with halfhearted enthusiasm. I didn't know much about ballet, and I knew even less about foal's tales. Sleeping Mare had fairies in it, but I didn't remember them being a big role. I wondered if perhaps my roommate wasn't as big of a deal as I had thought.
But, I won't lie; I was eager to see her dance up close and personal. The memory of that blissful look on her face when I had interrupted earlier was still fresh in my mind. That sneak peek of her dancing was too brief to know how good she was.
She sat with her hindlegs stretched out in opposite directions for a perfect split. She stretched out to touch one hoof, then back to touch the other. Her back gave a few pop!s that made me wince, but she seemed unfazed by them. After a few minutes of limber but otherwise boring stretches, she stood up on the tips of her hindhooves.
And then nothing. She just stood there, one foreleg raised in the air. Then she broke her poise to glare at me. "Silver!"
"Oh, right." I reached out and dropped the needle to the record. Music sprung forth and came to life.
Just as I looked from the record player to Velvet, she leapt into the air and similarly came to life. With every rise and dip of the song, so, too, did her legs in perfect sync. I know a cutie mark is tied to a pony's talents, but it was more than talent that fueled the fire behind her movements. It was a passion that burned so bright that it captivated me.
She danced across the living room and I simply watched in awe. It was as if the world faded away and all that remained was her, me, and the music. The way she moved her body moved my soul, causing my heart to pound in my chest with an eagerness to express myself. When the music drew to a close and she struck the final, graceful pose, my voice filled the silence unbidden.
"Velvet, that was... You are beautiful."
Velvet scrunched up her nose before she laughed. The beauteous mask shattered and the mare I had come to know returned with sarcastic spirit. "Uh, thanks, I guess. Can you put it back to the beginning? I don't feel like I got the lines quite right, and the Lilac Fairy needs to be perfect."
I didn't know what that meant, but I was more than happy to comply. The second time around, I noticed that her eyes were always fixed on her reflection in those floor-to-ceiling mirrors that I now fully understood the purpose of. She watched every movement she made with keen awareness, noticing details and flaws I'd never see.
So, after watching her practice for hours, it shouldn't be a surprise that I was eager to see the performance. Waiting for the next day was grueling. I actually, at one point, found myself considering the idea of writing a letter to my boss to propose the idea of a ballet film. Of course, I didn't. I'm just the film writer, not the idea maker. That's Majesty's job.
The evening finally arrived, and I stood in the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror while I adjusted my tie and tuxedo collar. This was a formal affair, but not so much so that it warranted a full tuxedo jacket. I was trying to decide on whether I should stick with the lilac tie or switch to my go-to silver one when a knock came from the front door.
I knew who it was: my date. Or, well, my sort-of date. The mare who paid for my ticket and I'd be sitting beside. Either way, it was time to face the music and see what kind of strange friend Velvet had. Sucking in a breath and forcing a smile, I went to the door and opened it.
Seeing Nightingale for the first time was breathtaking. It's hard to describe, but she's one of those mares who seems so ordinary that she's beautiful. She has a tawny brown coat that sets off her dark brown mane, which was tied up into a fashionably messy bun. Her eyes of an even darker brown look like rich, bittersweet chocolate. Some of her wing feathers are light brown while the rest match her coat or her mane.
All in all, she is a delicious sight of every shade of brown, and that particular evening, she was wrapped in a teal dress that I found myself trying not to imagine what it felt like. A matching ribbon around the middle of her neck drew my eyes there, and for Celestia's sake, I can't repeat the thought that went through my mind.
I realized, in that moment, that I was, maybe, possibly, perhaps starting to get over Parasol if I could look at another mare that way. Or I was just lonely. Either way, I knew Nightingale had a coltfriend, so I suppressed the unbidden thoughts about her neck.
"Hi," she said, and her voice was too cute not to adore. "You're Silver Script, right?"
I nodded, dumbly forgetting how to speak.
She giggled and Celestia help me, it was the cutest sound. "Well, are you ready to go?"
Word still lost to me, I just nodded again. Nightingale had a little sashay to her gait, sending the skirt of her gown swishing back and forth. At the time, I was embarrassed that, as I followed behind her, I kept glancing at her rump. Of course, I later learned that she was having the time of her life teasing me, and I was playing right into her hoof.
"You know, I'm kind of glad Velvet finally found a nice, compliant roommate." Nightingale giggled again. "A filly like her doesn't take orders well, and the last one was just so bossy. Gosh, I think he only lasted a week before she kicked him out."
Compliant! Was that what Velvet was saying I was? And more importantly—"The last one?" I said, my voice cracking just a little.
Nightingale glanced at me with a curious raise of her brow. "Oh, I guess you two haven't had 'the talk' yet. My bad!"
"What?" I frowned. "What talk? About not falling in love with her? She told me about that from the very beginning."
With a little sound that resembled a strangled laugh, Nightingale's wings fluttered against her sides. "Something like that, yeah. And how's that going?"
Now it was my turn to choke on a laugh. "She and I are friends. Just friends." Was it wrong that a part of me was hopeful that she was asking out of personal interest? No, yes, of course it was. Bad Silver! She had a coltfriend, and I've never been a mare-stealer.
"Good. I'd hate to have to watch you get your heart broken," she replied with what I could only interpret as sincere concern for me.
I cleared my throat as the revelation from before came back to me. "Right, because she's already in love with Crystal."
Nightingale came to a halt. I stopped to look back at her when I noticed that and saw her cheeks were puffed to keep laughter at bay.
My brow furrowed and I asked, "What?"
The laughter that burst forth was definitively not cute and giggly. It was a deep laugh from her belly, rasping and wheezing as she struggled just to stay upright on three legs while the fourth clutched at her chest.
Normally, I don't get laughed at so often, but something about me had changed lately, I guess. Or maybe it was just Velvet and her friends that found me funny.
"You—" She squeaked. "You think—"
I rolled my eyes. "I don't think. I know. I saw them together."
She sputtered into snickers and snorts as she tried to smother her laughing into submission. "Okay." She waved a hoof at me. "Okay, okay, hold up, okay." Wheezing, she shook her head. "First of all, Crystal is not only totally into stallions, but she's super into her husband. Like, you don't even know the half of it! And Velvet? No, sorry, I can't even. They're just basically sisters. Maybe in an alternate universe or something, but in this one, you're way off course."
Sisters? Did sisters really cuddle and talk about foals? My nose screwed up as I unfortunately thought of Parasol and her little sister. They hugged, sometimes nuzzled, and even used terms of endearments with one another. And her little sister used to tease us about foals all the time. Was it really possible I had completely misread the situation?
And where did that leave me in the scheme of things, especially now that I knew there had been others living with Velvet before me?
With a sigh, I gestured my hoof to encourage her to keep walking. "Let's pretend I never said that, then, and just get to the opera house, okay?
Please?"
The whole way there, Nightingale broke into little fits of giggles. She was going to tell Velvet, so I just resigned myself to the tormenting I'd receive later and tried to prepare myself for enjoying the show as we took our seats in the front row.
"This is going to be great," Nightingale whispered to me. "This is one of the most difficult ballets, you know."
I didn't, but I nodded anyway.
"Aurora's role is so tricky! The first act alone, oh my gosh, the Rose Adagio! I've always wanted to try it."
I glanced at her, tilting my head to the side. "Oh, are you a ballerina, too?"
The loose strands of her mane bounced as her head bobbed. "You bet! I'm not like Velvet, though. I'm happy as a corps dancer. She has a lot of potential as a soloist. If she decided to stay as a dancer, maybe she'd work her way up to a principal."
"Decided to stay?" My brow furrowed. "What do you mean by that?"
She waved a hoof as the lights started to dim. "Shh, it's starting!"
What convenient timing! Lucky for her, eh? I grumbled under my breath and directed my attention to the stage.
For the record, when it's called a front row seat, it's not actually front row to the stage. The orchestra was between us and where the dancers were on the stage. Live music, live performance.
Even I'll admit that there's a good reason why ponies prefer live entertainment to films—I could feel the music move through me, like I was breathing it. Projectors and speakers couldn't even begin to replicate the feeling of music reverberating in my bones.
At first, it was just darkness and music. I guess to set the mood, which was somewhere between excited and frantic. It was quick-paced and powerful in a subtle way before, suddenly, becoming soft and gentle. I just kept waiting for the show to finally start while Nightingale bounced in her seat with palpable anticipation.
Finally—finally—just when the music drew its way back up to full strength and petered back out into a quiet but merry little tune, the curtain began to lift. The theater was still dark, drawing attention to candle lights that started to make their way across the stage. As more of them came into view, the stage lit up and I could see several well-dressed ponies with one clearly in charge of the affair.
They were preparing for something. Honestly, I couldn't remember much at all about Sleeping Mare, and I knew nothing about the ballet version. Were stories and ballets the same? I was about to find out that, no, while they may be similar, there are a lot of differences, too.
There also wasn't a lot of ballet going on. And by a lot, I mean any. It was just ponies moving about in preparation. Two ponies who were definitely a queen and king from centuries past came out with what I assumed was a foal wrapped in an ostentatious number of blankets.
"Baby Aurora," Nightingale whispered to me. "It's a celebration of her birth."
I made a small 'o' with my mouth to acknowledge her, but otherwise kept my attention on the stage because the music had changed and proper ballerinas were starting to enter.
"The entrance of the fairies," Nightingale explained again.
That made my ears perk up—wasn't that what Velvet's record had said? "Which one's the, uh, the Lilac Fairy?"
Nightingale just grinned and said, "Oh, you'll see."
Soft music drifted over the fairies as they were guided by their partners through gentle movements across the stage. Though, I wasn't sure if the partners actually existed in the story, or were just there to help make the movements seem more ethereal. I really don't understand ballet.
Then, as soon as several fillies—representing lesser fairies—in purple danced in from the sides, all attention shifted to the center and the music swelled to greet Velvet Step, striking an elegant pose and held high in the air by her partner.
She was gorgeous in costume. The lilac complemented her soft pink coat so well, and it glittered under the lights above. Her mane was done up beneath a glimmering crown and, more than anything, was her expression that I could see from sitting so close. Was it possible for an expression to be beauty? I don't care if it's not. Hers was.
All bowed to her as she was set down. I wanted to bow to her, too. She carried herself with a commanding presence while her partner spun her in a slow circle. Everything else was lost to me, my gaze locked on her every movement. I was practically drowning in the vision of her, but pleasantly so.
Ah, but then Velvet went off-stage just as it was getting good, followed by the fairies who had preceded her. Of course. This was Sleeping Beauty, not Lilac Fairy. Her moment was over.
"Don't look so disappointed," Nightingale teased. "She'll be back."
I tried not to frown and failed; she giggled. I huffed and focused my attention on the group of purple-clad fillies, who had sprung back onto stage with a sprightly dance. Their movements were in harmony with not just the music, but with each other, too. And after a few moments, Velvet and her retinue returned to join them.
When the song came to an end, the queen greeted the fairies with a smile and drew her forehooves around one another above her head. Velvet replied by gesturing at the fairies who stood behind her and then making the same twirl of her forehooves, but with so much more finesse.
"It's a mime." Nightingale mimicked the gesture. "It means 'dance'. In the ballet, their dances are how they give their gifts to the baby princess."
Thank Celestia for Nightingale. I'm sure it all would still be enjoyable without the explanations, but I truly appreciated having them. Who knew that there was a whole unspoken language within ballet?
They all rose onto the tips of their hindhooves and their partners returned to guide them through the appearance of gliding, flighted movements. It was then I noticed how close and intimate they all were; the lilac stallion had his hooves on Velvet's hips, turning her, gripping her, lifting her, holding her.
But before I could analyze why I was irritated, the stage cleared and each fairy came out for a solo. It was interesting to me how different they were from one another. I'm sure they all represented a gift that Aurora would receive: song, dance, strength, courage, beauty, grace? It was lost on me, and Nightingale seemed too enthralled to take a moment to fill me in, so I just watched, especially when it was finally Velvet's turn.
Sweet mercy, was it so much different to see up there than in the living room. As the music flowed through her in perfect form, she reminded me of a book. One that was bent back so that the covers touched, wide open and exposed—you know, like a literal open book. Except she was written in another language that I didn't understand. So not like a metaphorical open book at all.
Listen, what I'm trying to say is, I was completely enraptured with her performance, but at the same time confused because the Velvet I knew and the Velvet I saw were like two totally different ponies. Velvet the ballerina was poise, grace, beauty. Velvet the roommate was sassy, snarky, lewd.
The rest of the ballet was a blur to me. I just couldn't stop watching Velvet whenever she was on stage and waiting for her to reappear when she wasn't. Thankfully, it turns out the Lilac Fairy plays a significant role in the ballet version of Sleeping Beauty, so I got to see a lot of her.
And while I may not remember every sweep, dip, kick, twirl, and move that Velvet's legs gave, I'll never forget how she looked to me that night. It's burned into my very soul: true beauty.