//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Epilogue // Story: Mixing Relationships // by Aryn240 //------------------------------// Chapter 12: Epilogue Groan. “Ugh... where in Celestia’s name am I...” Lyrica de Crescendo froze as she rolled over. Truly; where was she? This wasn’t her bedroom... The blue unicorn flopped over again to see that she was laying on her couch, in the main room of her apartment. Her coffee table was a mess, and there were empty cartons of ice cream everywhere. The carefully stacked magazines she usually kept stacked there were tossed against the wall in a heap. Wait. What were the ice cream containers doing there? Lyrica considered them carefully. There was a dirty spoon next to them; a casserole spoon, larger than a regular-size utensil. She glanced down at herself to see ice cream stains on her coat. She must have eaten all this ice cream last night- Last night. Last night. With the force of a cyclone, the memories of the previous night came flooding back to her. Lyrica collapsed back into a huddle on the couch, and cried. She cried for her failure, she cried for her humiliation, she cried for her love, her- Her love? No. Her hate. Her loathing. She cried harder, remembering the wretched discovery of Vibrant’s treachery. She cried for her own blindness and loneliness. Here she was, with no pony to comfort her. It had been her and Vibrant against the world; she had turned everypony else away, ridiculed them, exposed their flaws and their inadequacy, and took pleasure in their pain. She hadn’t needed them; she had a coltfriend. She was rich, and talented, and no pony else was as good as her. But then her carefully-laid world had crumbled. Her relationship with Vibrant became more forced as time went on, more focused on baiting and arguing than on themselves. Perhaps he had been like that all along; perhaps Lyrica had just been too blind to see it. It had started with meeting Octavia and her fillyfriend in the restaurant, and escalated all the way up until last night, where, after being forcibly ejected from the festival, the mare had reached the end of her rope with the stallion. Standing in the snow outside in the street, with no pony else around, she had said, “I can’t believe they threw us out like that! How could they not see that we were the best?” “I don’t know, Lyrica. Maybe it was your insane ranting, your cursing, or your complete lack of tact.” “Shut up, Vibrant! Why didn’t you help me?” “You didn’t need any help acting the fool!” “And you the coward!” “Did you see that chef? He was twice my size!” “In more ways than one, I’m sure!” “What’s that supposed to mean?” Lyrica stopped herself and felt that she was approaching the edge of hysteria. “Celestia, Vibrant, what happened? To us?” “What the bucking hell are you talking about?” “No! Don’t talk like that. You used to be different, you used to be less angry, less harsh. What happened?” Vibrant chuckled without humor. “I’m quite the actor.” Lyrica felt the first rays of actual doubt creep into her. She had been an actor herself, earlier, to retain her dignity by berating Vibrant in front of the crowd, but she had assumed all along what Fancy Pants had said to be false. “What.... What are you saying?” “Damn, Lyrica! Are you this dense?” Anger. “I’m not dense! I’m trying to save a relationship!” The white stallion grinned, again without humor. “Relationship? Oh, Lyrica. This was a mutual partnership; something of use to both of us. You got a strong, handsome protector, to help you in your asinine plans, and to help you make your song. I got... well, my pleasures.” Lyrica’s body was numb, and not from the cold of the snow still collecting around her. She felt the black hole inside her, the last solid facet of life crumbling. The night could not get any worse. At last, she managed to talk. “You... you used me?” Vibrant looked incredulous. “Seriously? After you spent all of our time together bossing me around? Calling me a foal? Insulting me when I couldn’t do things fast enough, or well enough?” “But... That wasn’t all of the time...” “It was close enough.” The stallion considered her, then, as an afterthought, added, “Don’t worry. You weren’t the only one.” That was it. That was confirmation. “...Fancy Pants was telling the truth? Earlier?” Vibrant made a face like he had tasted something unpleasant. “That foal? Damn him. And those irritating fillyfoolers... You hated them, too.” “But were they telling the truth?” Vibrant turned and began to walk away from her, down the snowy street. “I’ll tell you what, Lyrica. You go your way, and I’ll go mine.” Lyrica gasped, and shouted after him. “You cowardly little lowlife piece of SCUM!” No response. No response. Nothing... The night after that was blurred by her misery. Lyrica had always been harsh to Vibrant, and he back, but she had always believed him to be true to her underneath. Now he was gone, and so was everything else in her world. The pianist turned over on the couch again, away from the ice cream containers and the heartache. She faced into the cushions. A short time passed. Gradually, Lyrica cried herself out, and her spell passed. Vibrant’s influence began to diminish as her self-esteem raised a tiny bit. It was as if her body was tired of being miserable, and had decided to regard the stallion’s dishonesty as unimportant. Raising her head, she glanced around, and gathered her resolve. Getting to her hooves, she used her magic to carry all of the containers to the trash. As an afterthought, she threw out the spoon, as well. She restacked the magazines, and was trotting out of the room to clean herself up when her piano caught her eye. She quickly washed her coat off, then returned to the room. Eyeing the piano, she crossed to it, and, using her magic, picked out a few chords. The sound encouraged her, and she played a little more. She began to improvise a quick song, a quick, aggressive song, that channeled her feeling. She was free, she was herself again, she had the power to do whatever she wished, she didn’t need him, she didn’t- A noise came from the small box by her door. Lyrica glanced over to see the intercom on; it was one of the ponies working on the bottom floor of her apartment building. “Miss de Crescendo?” The blue mare scrambled to reach the intercom, almost falling. “Y-Yes?” “There’s a unicorn down here to see you. Wants to know about piano lessons, or something.” Lyrica glanced around, her mind whirling. She didn’t usually do lessons, but she needed something, something to raise her confidence. The money would come in handy, and it was something to occupy her time, since she no longer- She choked back another flow of emotion. No. She didn’t need that. Besides, maybe the client would be a handsome stallion. No need to think about anything else. “Send them up, please.” “Yes, m’am.” The pianist released the intercom button, smiling to herself. See? Things were already looking up. She glanced around the room, making sure everything was in order. It was close enough. Then her eyes happened upon a mirror. Oh, Celestia... Her mane! It was atrocious, and that client was coming! Hurriedly, she snatched up a brush from across the room with her magic, galloped to the mirror, and began brushing furiously. She heard the sound of approaching hooves, and brushed faster. A knock. Lyrica glanced around desperately. “Hold on, please!” The knocking stopped, and the unicorn heard a quiet, high voice from outside, with a bit of fear. “Oh, I’m sorry, Miss de Crescendo! I didn’t mean to disturb...” The blue mare stopped brushing, and lowered it slowly. That voice... Hearing no reply from the other side, the voice continued. “Um, Fancy Pants recommended you. I wanted to learn piano, to help with some of my music. I told him that you looked really uptight and that you might be upset with me, but he said that he didn’t think you were yourself, and that you were really a very good pianist, and-” The voice cut off, cognizant of what it had just said. Quieter: “Oh, Celestia! Now I’ve blown it...” Lyrica, all thoughts of her mane banished, approached the door slowly. She knew she should check the peephole, but her magic seemed to turn the knob of its own accord. The door opened to reveal a dark green unicorn with a black jacket and gray eyes. She looked timidly at the pianist, who looked back in utter confusion. Is she here to laugh at me? To rub her victory in my face? Lyrica prepared for the worst. Evie hesitantly extended a hoof. “I don’t know if you remember me, but my name is Evie Stelar. I heard your song after you, um, left last night, and I admired your playing. Could you teach me to play like you?” The blue mare was dumbfounded. She opened her mouth to respond, but couldn’t say anything. She tried again, but still nothing came out. Helpless, she gestured with a hoof for Evie to come in. The green unicorn trotted in cautiously, then turned back to Lyrica, her eyes lighting up. “Oh! I almost forgot!” Using her magic, she pulled out a small purse from a pocket in her jacket. “I have money in here, to pay you for lessons. I got a lot for the, uh, record contract-” she gulped fearfully at having mentioned the festival again- “and, um, I can pay you well.” In her nervousness, she opened the purse the wrong way, and a few bits fell out, along with a scrap of paper. Mechanically, Lyrica helped her pick up her things, still not trusting herself to say anything. She had no idea of how to act in this situation. Her magic found the piece of paper, and unconsciously, she brought it up to her face. It was a picture of a fairly large stallion, with the same gray eyes as Evie, and a coat a slightly darker shade of green. His mane was a very, very dark orange. Seeing Lyrica inspecting the picture, Evie rushed to explain. “Oh! That’s my older brother. He’s a guitar player. I have his picture, and he has mine.” The blue mare liked what she saw. She finally found her voice. “Evie, dear, I would be quite happy to give you piano lessons. Come along here, we’ll discuss your music and what you would like to learn.” The green unicorn, evidently feeling better now that Lyrica was talking, smiled tentatively and went to sit on the couch. The pianist turned. Things are looking up, she thought as she closed the door. *** *** *** Across Manehattan, another door closed. This was the door to Vinyl Scratch’s flat, and it closed behind herself and Octavia as they entered. The pair, after the end of the festival (and a large number of further drinks), had returned to Octavia’s flat, radiantly happy. They had stayed the night there, and awoken late in the morning. After a breakfast of French toast (so reminiscent of all that time ago, when Vinyl had threatened to eat the cello), the grey mare had uttered a few dreaded words: “Well, I suppose we had better get over and attempt to clean up your flat...” Vinyl had nearly choked on her breakfast. “What? But we won five hundred bits! Let’s just hire somepony!” Octavia shook her head good-naturedly. “Let’s save that money, for now. At the very least, let’s go over and have a look at how bad it is, hmm?” “Do we have to?” “You know the answer to that question as well as I do.” The DJ swallowed her last bite and gave up. “Alright, fine. Let’s go see it again.” “Come on.” The grey mare had pecked her on the cheek and made ready to go. And now they were standing in the entrance hall, looking down it into the living room. The mess already looked bad, and they could only see a few feet of it. Vinyl tapped her companion. “Quick! If we leave now, we don’t have to look at any more of it!” “Now, now, it’s not.... that... bad... oh, my. Is that the lamp you used to hit Vibrant?” The white unicorn looked, and then nodded, grinning. “Uh-huh! That was a good shot!” “That it was! It’s also a fine mess, however...” The grey mare trotted further down the hall and kicked a piece of the lamp with a hoof. It skittered off into a corner of the room. The room truly was a wreck. Not many things were unbroken, and the shattered pieces of everything else were scattered over every possible surface. The DJ followed her companion in and glanced at the wreckage. Deciding to disregard it, she climbed over it to reach her refrigerator across the room. Once there, she opened it with her magic and inspected the contents, finally selecting the same carton of milk she had drunk from the night of the fight. She finished it off, and then turned to the trash can. Realizing there was no point, she glanced at the state of the room, and tossed the carton haphazardly in the center. “Vinyl!” “What? What?” “The room’s bad enough without you tossing garbage around it!” “Awww, come on. It doesn’t even make a difference.” Octavia sighed, and crossed the room carefully to her. She looked around, and shook her head. “Vinyl, you know....” “What?” “You may be right. We’re never going to get this cleaned up; it looks like somepony tossed a bomb in the window.” “Oh! Oh! Let’s go back to your place, then!” “Why would you say that? Are you admitting that mine is superior?” “No! Never! Maybe!” The cellist laughed. “My flat is neater. Therefore, it is better. If only it was larger...” Vinyl stuck her tongue out. “Mine has me in it, so now it’s better.” Octavia looked at her and rolled her eyes. “Oh, very mature.” “Yeah, yeah. Know what else isn’t mature?” “What?” “This!” Without further warning, the DJ leapt at the grey mare, catching her around the middle and tickling her. “What? No! (heh) Vinyl!” The cellist backed up, with the unicorn following her, pressing the attack. Suddenly, Octavia tripped on an overturned table and fell backwards, landing on her back with her hooves in the air. Vinyl fell as well, and landed on top of her. They froze. Deja vu was prevalent. “Hey, Tavi?” “...Yes, Vinyl?” “Do you remember a few weeks ago? When we were on the way to that concert, and fell over in the snow, just like this?” Octavia’s heart soared at the memory. “Yes, yes, I do. That was quite... pleasant.” “You know what?” “What?” “If we were outside, there would be so much snow in your face.” The cellist groaned and rolled over, knocking the DJ off. “Honestly? That’s all you came up with?” Vinyl giggled and poked her. “Come on, Tavi. You know I love you!” “Ugh. Anyway, about your flat... You can’t stay here. This is deplorable.” “That’s okay by me! I’ll stay with you some more.” The DJ winked at her. “Well, I suppose, since we’re all over Manehattan publicly, it couldn’t hurt to-” Octavia stopped. “‘Hurt to’ what?” The cellist didn’t respond at first. She stared out a window, clearly reaching a revelation. Vinyl waited. Suddenly, the earth pony snapped back to earth. “Vinyl! How difficult is it to move the recording things you have in the back?” The DJ laughed. “Well, since I never really screwed em down, not hard at all. But why?” “Don’t you see?” “See what?” “We won five hundred bits. We both make a fairly steady income, and we have an equipment makeover waiting for us!” “....Yeah....?” “So that’s it! We’re already public, we’re in love, let’s move in together! Let’s get a new flat, together! We can sell this one cheap, as it is. Let somepony else clean it up. Mine will go for a little more, and we can save that. ” Vinyl’s brow furrowed as she considered this. It wasn’t something she had ever thought of; it had always seemed to her like they’d continue in their way forever. This was a change. “So... Live together? All the time?” “Yes!” Octavia’s eyes were bright. Vinyl could see her planning it all out in her head. “We’ll go shopping for a bigger, better apartment! Pay for it with the prize money! We’ll set up the recording equipment there, and make it better with the makeover we won!” She sat down amid the chaos in the room and grabbed the DJ’s forehooves in her own. “Do you see? No pony cares if we live together any longer! We have the world in our hooves!” Vinyl was starting to see it. She sat down as well, and grinned. “And we can get a huge, king sized bed, and sleep all day if we want to, and then we can get up, and you can make breakfast-” The cellist gave her a look. The unicorn laughed, blushed, and started over. “-I mean, we can make breakfast, and then we can play music over our new sound system, and...” She trailed off, thinking of it. They sat like that for a time, happy in each other’s company, thinking of the future. *** *** *** “Tavi! Tavi! Did you see this?” “Hold on, Vinyl! Come out here!” A week had passed. The pair, acting on their plan, had been from apartment building to apartment building, looking for their ideal place. They hadn’t found anything perfect... until now. They had already been to two other buildings that day, and found them somewhat lacking. Now, they were in a large-scale, fairly high-class apartment building, for their last planned visit of the day. They had been shown to a vacant flat on the top floor, and been left alone to inspect it (a bad idea with Vinyl, but the owners didn’t know that, yet). The apartment was wonderful, with everything they needed: a large living room, a kitchen for Octavia (correction: Octavia and Vinyl) to cook in, a spacious master bedroom with a plush, king-sized bed, and two sizable guest bedrooms, perfect for setting up their recording equipment. The price was hefty- (a little more than the previous apartments)- but the cellist knew they could make it work. The apartment was, after all, beautiful. But there was one final factor that Octavia wanted to investigate before deciding: the roof. They had been told when they were shown up that top-floor tenants had the privilege to occupy the roof when they wished. The grey mare badly wanted that all-around view of Manehattan, and so urged Vinyl to come out of the apartment and into the hall so they could go up. “Come on!” “Wait, did you see this? Look!” Grudgingly, the cellist poked her head back into the apartment to see the DJ playing with the drapes in the room. They were remote controlled, and raised and lowered on their own. Vinyl was enchanted with making them go up and down again and again. Octavia grinned, shaking her head. “Come on, you. Trust me, no matter how many times you press the button, the shades will still go up and down.” Vinyl made a face at her. “Stop ruining my fun!” “I’m sorry. Well, not actually, but can we go up on the roof, now?” “Fine...” The unicorn stuck her nose in the air and strutted past the cellist, pretending to be angry. The earth pony smiled and poked her in the side with a hoof. Vinyl jumped. “Hey! Tender area!” Octavia giggled. “Let’s go, you.” They started down the hall towards the door that led to the roof. None of the other tenants of the floor had been around when they had been shown up to inspect, and none appeared now, but as the pair passed one of the doors, the sound of piano music floated out to them. Vinyl commented. “That’s not too bad! I wonder who that is.” The cellist nodded in agreement. “Indeed; we shall have to visit them.” “So is this it? Are we moving in here?” “Let’s see how the roof is, first.” They reached the door at the end, and pushed it open, leaving the (somewhat familiar) piano melody behind. Climbing the stairs beyond, they could feel the cold beginning to assert itself. “Ugh! When is it going to get warmer? I’m sick of this!” “Soon, Vinyl.” As the two emerged on the roof, they were silenced by the breathtaking view. It was late in the evening, and the sun was just finishing setting. All of Manehattan was laid out below them, with a few higher buildings behind them. The street lights were lit, and they could just barely see ponies in the distance on their way home from various places, or perhaps on their way out; whether to dinner or other entertainments. It may have been loud down below, but on the roof, the silence was immaculate. Without speaking, Vinyl and Tavi trotted to the edge. The snow was light, but as the cellist had just remarked, spring was right around the corner. They watched as the last few slivers of the sun began to sink below the horizon. Finally, Vinyl broke the silence. “...Tavi?” “Mmmm?” The cellist moved closer to her paramour, snuggling herself to her. “Are we going to choose this apartment?” “I think so. Do you?” “Yeah. It was great, and this view.. maybe we could just come up here sometimes, and sit? Just like now.” “Mhm...” The earth pony murmured contentedly. They sat in silence for a little longer. This time, Octavia broke the quiet. “You know, ponies may think we make quite an odd couple.” Vinyl looked at her curiously. “Maybe. But would you want us any other way?” The cellist shook her head immediately. “No. I wouldn’t change a thing.” “And now that we’ll be living together, all the time, we really will be a real couple, won’t we?” There was no need for an answer, and they both knew it. Octavia kissed Vinyl deeply as the sun vanished completely over the horizon, and darkness fell about the two lovers, who sat in their own light. *** *** *** THE END ***Author’s (final) note: Going to be a long one, sorry. xD Dear Celestia, that felt odd to type. After the six or more months I’ve spent working on this, it feels very weird, almost wrong, to end it. But this particular tale is over, and I hope you enjoyed the ending. ^_^ Speaking of the ending... I did not anticipate the flow of sympathy for Lyrica! I had never really considered her too closely, but as I read the comments, I realized that she did get taken advantage of, a little. So I tried to give her a happier ending here. I hope you guys thought it was fair; and I hope that Evie’s final appearance surprised some (if not all) of you. ;) But overall, happy ending is happy. A couple of final, closing things: -If anyone knows what book the quote “You go your way and I’ll go mine” is from, you are my hero. I hope someone out there has read it. :) -Here’s something.. I’ve already had one person ask if they could make a song, using the fic’s title. My answer is, go for it! If anyone out there is a musician, and wants to try their hoof (hand, sorry) at creating what they thought Vinyl and Tavi’s song (or any of the others!) sounded like, I encourage you to! If you would be so kind as to send me a link, I intend to continually update the end of this note with a list of links, for future readers, so I can add it here. :D -Last thing from you guys: I can’t tell you how much I love all of you. Being that this was my first serious fanfic, I’m blown away by the amount of support I received for it. Thanks, to all of you. I know several people who have been following and commenting from the beginning, and I love them for it. You guys are the best! <3 That being said, I have one more (tiny!) favor to ask of you. 1)What did you think, and 2)Where should I go next? Send me a message, drop me a comment, email me, whatever you would like, with any comments you have, or any suggestions as to what you want to see next. Should I do Mane 6 stuff? Daring Do? Whatever! :D (I’m open to all suggestions besides clop and grimdark). And if you don’t want to leave anything, that’s fine, too. I thank you for reading, and for coming along with me for this ride. It’s been a wild one. See you around. :) Signing out for the last time on Mixing Relationships, Aryn EDIT: First track! By cadeyyz. Link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUVBNw_I_LU&feature=plcp