//------------------------------//
// Round1- Oscar and Felix 
// Story: A Day At The Ponyville PRIDE Parade 
// by Alicia Van Hammer 
//------------------------------//

The green earth pony checked his mane one last time.  He gave one more tug to the rainbow bandana around his temple and spritzed his shimmering coif with just one more shot of styling cologne.   The auburn bouffant hair-do was extra springy with a shine to match the gleam in his smile, just the way his fans liked it.  Those dazzling pearly whites likewise matched the sparkling blue eyes which made all the little fillies just swoon.  Two deep breaths.  In.  Out.  In.  Out.  He thumped a hoof against his barrel.  Okay...  

His camera-mare gave him the signal as she turned her cap around and hefted the heavy piece of magical equipment to her shoulder.  

"We're going live, Dude.  Game face."  She adjusted a few knobs on the side as the lime-green stallion continued his breathing, psyching himself up.  In.  Out.  In.  Out.   Sweet Celestia, he LOVED show biz.   "Here we go, Dude.  You GOT this.  Buck it outta the park for us, same as always."  

The stallion smiled at her encouragement and gave up a hoof bump with all the confidence and energy of a trained professional.  In.  Out.  In.  Out.  

"And here we go, Dude.  We roll live in Six.  Five.  Four..."  The freckled mare mouthed the final countdown silently as several small lights came to life on the shoulder-mounted camera.

As the count hit zero, the stallion raised the microphone to his dazzling smile and he came alive as well.

"HEY, everypony out there, every stallion and mare!  How ya doing today?  GOoooOD morning to you, EQUESTRIA!  It's yer one and only pal, with ALL the news that's fit for YOooooOU'S ta PERUSE from yer FAY-vorite family here at KAY- TEE- ARE- OH-TEE, KAAaaaaaAAAY-TROT!   DUDE MacSMIRKY laughin' and scratchin' atcha from HERE at theeEEeeee place to BE, the ONE and ONLY, the annual PONYVILLE PRIDE PARAAAAAADE!"

The stallion made a grand sweeping gesture and slid to the side with all the pomp and circumstance of the greatest of circus ringmasters.  His camera mare adjusted the lens and took a wide panoramic of the scene on Main Street.

All along the street, ponies from all over the land cheered and laughed.  She noted a few other creatures in the mix as well, a few Yaks, Gryphons, several of the "Love-bugs" of the Badlands, all beaming and cheering as brightly as anypony.  Confetti flew from windows by the hoof-full.  Streamers of every color of the rainbow sailed across the streets and ponies of every shape, size, color and creed were dancing in the most festive atmosphere she'd ever seen.  

Beneath a brilliant banner of glittery blue letters reading "The Blue Blazer's YAS Club"  marched a group of giddy stallions in sparkling multi-colored body-stocking costumes resembling the Wonderbolts.  The lean and lanky earth ponies came down the lane, dancing in amazingly choreographed unison, stomping, bucking and twisting, hopping and twirling, flipping end-over-end.  Their chests were puffed up as big as their smiles.  One took a photo with a cheering family, giving up hugs.   The flamboyant fellow placed his sunglasses on the head of a young colt with a rustle of his mane before standing at attention and giving a crisp salute.  The tiny colt did his best to return the gesture as did his beaming parents, getting in on the fun.  The mother took the camera, allowing the father just one more photo with the performer and another big hug ending in a rather blush-inducing smooch to the cheek before he cartwheeled his way back to the ranks of his compatriots.  

From all around signs were waved about with joyful slogans and clever quips.  Pegasi dropped buckets of glitter and tiny toys and accessories for the crowds.  Unicorns used their various magics to create gorgeous pyrotechnics in the sky.  Earth ponies stomped out joyful drumbeats against the ground.  Everywhere she could see, faces wore smiles as wide as the great Celestial Sea.

"HEY!  How ABOUT those MOVES, HUNH?  What a SHOW from those A-MAY-zing cats n'kitties from the one and only Bah-LOO Bah-LAAAAaay-ZERS YAS CLUUUUUUUB!"  

The crowd cheered as music seemed to come from everywhere.    Street performers strummed away at all manner of instruments.  Some thumped away at drums, dancing with friends, lovers or even just to the beat of their own special song.  Tambourines jingled and laughter sang in the air.

"The scene is just the best here at Main Street, PO-NEE-VILLE and as you all can see, the good folks of Equestria have come out IN DAH-ROVES to show their support and GIVE Up a LEETLE LOOOOoooOOVE to their fellow creatures!  Today we're all celebrating the victory of Love!  The biggest, BESTEST WIN of them ALL!  From our noble Princess Celestia putting THA BEAT-DOWN on Diss-ah-diss-ah-DISS-CORD, AAAAaaaall the way up to the day that BIG OL' box of Cah-RAY-zee Sweetness decided to show some LUFF AND AH-FECK-SHUN and move in here with ONE of PONYVILLE'S OWN, it's all about LOVE and LOVE is ALL GOOD!  AM I RIGHT EVERYCREATURE?!"

The stallion addressed the crowd which returned his energy in a round of whoops and cheers.  Some whistled.  Some shrieked.  Some wailed like banshees and a few threw rings of beads to both the media star and his camera-mare.  Stallions, mares, colts and fillies all jumped up and down in carefree celebration.  

"So WHOooooooOO do we have comin' up NEXT?"  The stallion dramaticaly placed a hoof over his brow and wriggled his eyebrows conspiratorially.  

A group of ponies approached, marching proudly and kicking high with smiles almost as radiant as the sun.  Two ponies of note, the "Spa Siblings" Aloe and Lotus marched near the front, carrying between them a banner which boldly proclaimed in rainbow letters "LOVE WINS".  At the head of the procession stomped along a bright red mare, her powerful barrel swelled up with the breath of confidence.  From beneath her pink cow-girl's hat her freckled smile glowed, chased by the waving braid of her blonde mane.  The eldest Apple Sibling, newly christened Miss Ruby Red was unmistakable as she proudly tossed little flags of pink, blue and white to the crowd.  Behind the rustic mare marched a procession of ponies of all shapes and sizes, colours and manes.  Some seemed nervous, bolstered in confidence by their peers.  Others were overjoyed, draping hoofs around their peers and trading hugs with members of the crowd.

"Well would you LOOK.  AT.  THESE.  LOVE-LY little ponies!"  The entertainment personality placed a hoof to his chin in exaggerated pantomime of heavy thought.   "I Wonder What we've got goin' on here." 

With a snap, his grin returned as big and bright as ever and he gave up a wink to the camera.   How he had not been recruited by Flim and Flam, nopony could ever say.  His energy was infectious. "HEY!  I got it!  HOW ah-BOUT we ask one of these LOVE-LY ladiiiiiiiies!"  The Earth pony half-crab-walked, half danced in a fluid sideways gait towards a somewhat nervous-looking grey mare on the edge of the procession.

"EK-SkyooOOse me, Miss!"  Dude stopped short and gave a very gentlemanly bow with a flourish of his hoof, stopping the mare in her tracks.  She placed a hoof to her barrel as a light hint of rose appeared on her cheeks.  "DUDE Mac SMIRKY here, for KAY-Trot!"  He looked back to the camera with a wink that deserved it's own little trademark floating beside him before returning to the somewhat stunned  mare.  "Would a LOVELY Lady such as yourself mind giving up a little interview time for The Duuuuude?"  His eyebrows wiggled in a bizarrely charming mix of good-natured friendliness and lascivious intent.

The grey mare's violet eyes were wide as she looked to the bombastic reporter and his camera entourage.  She primly brushed a delicate hoof through her lustrous long mane of raven tresses, brushing a few bits of confetti out in the process.  Adjusting the crisp lavender bow-tie around her neck, and flicking a few more bits of confetti from the treble clef on her flank, she rallied to regain her composure and cleared her throat.  "Uhm.  Yes... Well, I... That is- "  Her Trottingham accent gave a regal air of cultured charm to her stammering.  

"I- OURF-!!"

Her attempt at a reply was cut short as she was nearly tackled by another mare.  The white unicorn wrapped her hoofs around her barrel and squeezed her tightly, laughing like a loon and whipping her spiky blue mane about to the beat of the pounding drums.  "TAVI!  AW Tavi!  Isn't this just The BEST!"  She wore a white t-shirt and was covered in glowing rings of all colors of the rainbow, dangling and twirling from her forelimbs and horn.  She was like some kind of one-mare hug-missle rave-machine on legs as she assault-embraced the annoyed grey earth pony.  She rose to her hind legs and scooped the Trottingham native off her hoofs, still laughing and giggling, giddy as a school-filly, swinging her around and dancing in a circle.  The grey mare did her level best to continue in stuffy annoyance.  "Vinyl would- you- I- Vinyl, I swear- If you don't- Gah!  VINYL!!  We're on CAMERA!"  

"Whuh?"  The white unicorn looked to the reporter and his entourage with a slack jaw and furrowed brow, finally noticing them.  She slowly set the grey mare to her hoofs and scratched at her flank.  Raising her purple sunglasses, she looked the news crew over with her large, rhodonite-red eyes.  "Oh, hey!  Who're these guys?"  She chuckled and raised an eyebrow with a mischevious grin.  "I leave you alone for five minutes and you start a threesome?"

"VINYL!"

WHAP!  The grey mare's hoof impacted with the unicorns barrel with all the familiarity of an old married couple and all the energy of a couple of high-school sweethearts.  The reporter looked to his camera-mare with a knowing grin.  They had struck GOLD.

The grey mare huffed several times as she straightened her mane again, brushing a few new bits of confetti from herself and clearing her throat once more.  "Yes, before we were so rudely interrupted."  The grey mare extended a hoof of greeting with all the prim and crisp manner of a proper Trottingham lady.  "Yes.  I...  I suspect I would rather like to give you an interview very much, mister... 'Dood' was it?"

The reporter shook her hoof and pointed his microphone to her.  "Yes MA'AM, the ONE and ONLY Dude MacSMIRKY! ...and would you mind telling all our WON-derful viewing audience just WHO I have the pleasure of speaking with on this AMAZING day, beautiful?"

The grey mare's slight blush returned.  Despite the practiced air of nonchalance ground into her by private schools and upper-crust upbringing it was clear that she was as nervous as a dragon with a sprained wing flying over an icy lake.  "I?  Oh!  Yes.  Octavia.  Octavia Philharmonica."

"Miss OCTAVIA PHIL-HAR-MONICA!"  He turned to the camera.  "A gorgeous name for a GORGEOUS gal.  Wht do you do, Miss PHILHARMONICA?"

"I am a concert cellist for the Royal Canterlot Orchestra, actually."

"WOW!  She has talent to match those STUNNING good looks!  And who is your friend here, Miss Philharmonica?"

The grey mare turned slightly with a polite smile.  "This... this would be my marefriend-"

The white unicorn chimed in with a raspy voice that carried the smoke of a thousand nights of screaming and laughing her way through a stage show in a smoke-filled club.  "Vinyl Scratch!  You can call me DJ P0n-3 if you want but my friends just call me Vinyl."

The reporter gave a big-eyed display for the camera.  "VINYL SCRATCH...?  The ONE... and ONLY... Vinyl.  Record.  SCRATCH?  Miss DEE-JAY- POWN- THREE her-SELF?  I thought we were looking at a COSPLAY here!  Mares and Stallions, Colts and Fillies we have a home-grown, Ponyville's own cee-LEB-rah-TEE!"

Vinyl chuckled and ate up the attention with a steam-shovel, brushing a hoof against her barrel.  "Yeah... I'm kind of a big deal."  Octavia sighed and rolled her eyes as she felt her marefriend's ego swelling to fill the air.  

Dude turned back to address Octavia.  "So, Miss Philly-O-harmonica, what brings a simply STUNNING grey goddess such as yourself here to-DAY?"

Octavia shuddered at the praise, genuinely taken off her already nervous balance.  "Well... We came here today to enjoy the festivities.  It's my first time at one of these events-"

Vinyl wrapped a hoof around her marefriend's shoulders.  "Yeah.  We're poppin' her cherry."

Octavia would be punching her eye-roll travel ticket to death before the day was done.  "Vinyl.  Must you be so vulgar?"

The white unicorn leered.  Her gravely voice lowering to the conspiratorial tone of lurid pursuits.  "You didn't mind my 'vulgarity' last night."

For her part, Octavia managed to keep her composure and fire back.  "Yes.  I suppose you do have your uses on occasion."

Vinyl laughed, reeling in mock-agony.  "Augh.  You see what I have to put up with here, Dude?  Oh man, the abuse..."

Octavia shot a look to the reporter under heavy lids and the rising tide of pursed lips as they wrestled back a smile.

Dude adjusted the rainbow bandana in his mane and grinned to his camera-mare.  "Yes, ladies, it sounds like true love.  Heh-heh..."  He shook his head, raising a hoof to his chin.  "Saaaaaay... Miss Phila-a-dil-a-harmonica, The DUDE seems to recall seeing your name on a Pah-RO-GRAM for the evening's fesitivities?  ISN'T THAT RIGHT SALLY?"

The camera-mare gave a nod of her freckled face as she produced the folded sheet and handed it over.  "Right on, Dude."

Octavia gave a friendly if short nod. "Yes.  I will be taking part in a performance this evening at the pavilion across from Rarity's Boutique with a string quartet ah... accompanied by Miss Applejack on her banjo."

The reporter dramatically fanned himself with the program."Be STILL my poor pony HEART!"

Vinyl side-hugged her marefriend, her barrel swelling with pride.  Octavia gave a tight-lipped smile.  "Yes.  The show will be free to the public of course.  I hope we will be seeing you there, Dood."  

"Oh Sweet Sally of tha magic camera and Tha Dude are already THERE, Miss GORGEOUS GREY!"  He held up the pamphlet in his green hoof, examining the florid cursive lettering.  Whatever he was about to say stopped as he took notice of something.  "Woah.  Miss Octavia PHILL-A-DOO it looks like they may have messed up on yer name here.  The DUDE is only seeing one...  'Octavia Melody'...?"

The grey mare groaned as did Vinyl.  Her shoulders sagged.  Her violet eyes drifted downward in a mix of familiar frustration and exasperation.  She suddenly looked so tired.  Vinyl, on the other hoof was highly energized, furious.  The jovial and carefree bar-room persona of her unicorn marefriend disappeared as if the words had flicked an invisible switch.  The red eyes became harder, stern as she looked to Octavia.  Her coat almost seemed to visibly bristle.  "Baby, I-"

Octavia was silent, raising a hoof and sighing heavily. 

Vinyl continued, her tone becoming sharp and aggressive.  "I TOLD them.  I KNOW I TOLD them, baby.  I am SO Sorry."

"No, Vinyl it's... it's all right..."

"No, it's not, Tavi.  I will buck that little turd Inkspot upside his bucking head."  The unicorn's teeth were clenched, ready to make good on the threat.  She growled and raised a hoof in outrage.

"No.  I'll take care of it."  Octavia sounded tired.  While her marefriend was ready to be tagged in to jump to her defense in the ring, Octavia stood rigid and proud.  This was just another round of an old fight for her.

The reporter looked back and forth between the two mares.  "Woah.  Looks like there's some bad business there..."

Octavia looked from her marefriend to the reporter.  "Yes, well, you see... "

Vinyl reached over to take Octavia's hoof in hers.  "Tavi- "  She squeezed the hoof.  Her red eyes were overflowing with concern.  "You don't have to do this."

Octavia smiled and pursed her lips, choking back a swelling of emotions.  She looked into those red eyes.  They were loving, imploring almost.  Those deep red eyes spoke to her in silence the promise that whatever Octavia did, she would support her.  Vinyl was a rambunctious, lackadaisical jerk at times but right now, she was a wellspring of strength.   The grey mare nodded, steeling herself for this long overdue moment.  "I know."  

She turned to the reporter, straightening herself.  "You see, Mister MacSmirky... my family name of 'Melody'  was stripped from me in the legal sense some years ago when my father cast me out from our ancestral home.  I have since adopted 'Philharmonica' as my new title."

The reporter shook his head somberly.  "Wow... That sounds like some BAD business there, Miss."  He turned to address the camera with a set chin and dour expression.  "WHAT kind of 'FATHER'... would turn his back on his OWN dear sweet little baby filly like that?"  

Octavia gave a chuckle.  She had to give it to him, whether genuinely concerned or simply a showman to the end, the reporter was as charming as he was a professional at his job.  "Well... You see, Mister MacSmirky..."  

Octavia paused.  She breathed deeply, wrestling with the words in her mind.  Looking down to her fidgeting hoofs, her mind sailed far away, long ago.  Years of memories, years of pains.  She had fought for so long, struggled so hard to hide the secrets.  The fighting, the shame, the ugly names her father had called her.  The way her mother turned away as she pleaded for understanding.  Every angry glare of disappointment and door shut in her face by each relative- her 'loving' family all-too-ready to leave a 'freak' like her to the cold winds of fate.

"I..."  She looked to Vinyl one more time.  The unicorn held her hoof tightly.  Her other hoof remained protectively draped around her, gently, if firmly, pulling her body closer as the tensions rose in her shoulders.  She looked into those deep rubies that she had become lost in so many times.  She loved them.  From the wild-eyed glare they'd given her years ago, that first night in a smoke-filled club,  to the bleary, hungover mess they were in her apartment just this morning- those eyes had been there for her.  They had been her flat-mate.  They had become her friend.  Over time, they had become her lover.  Now, they were everything she needed.   Those eyes told her.  Do it, girl.  You got this.  

Vinyl smiled and gave a resolute nod.   

Octavia Philharmonica cleared her throat and looked back to the camera to face the world.

"I am... a 'trans-mare'... Mister MacSmirky.  When I 'came out' as it were to my parents about what I had always felt about myself... what I had always KNOWN... about this body... they took the news rather poorly."  She unconsciously raised a hoof and rubbed at her cheek as she felt a stinging and swelling from all those years ago.  Words as sharp as daggers still cut her just as deeply, ringing their venom in her memory as fresh and hateful as the night they had been shouted at her.   "I knew what I was and I knew whom I had always been.  I had read the research done by contemporary physicians and presented them with the whole of the truth... the daughter they never knew they had."

She swallowed hard.  "My mother would have none of me.  My father... threw me out that very night.   None of my biological family would offer me shelter, viewing me from their old-world ideals of outdated social norms and customs.  I was a thing of revulsion, an object of shame and ridicule."

She looked once more to the mare at her side.  Vinyl's eyes were naturally as red as rubies but now, they were as red at the rim as they were in the iris.  Usually those eyes were large as dinner plates, scanning the world for opportunities of juvenile and puerile tomfoolery, new ways to get under her marefriend's skin but now, they were as intent as they had ever been- only on HER.  The mare she generally thought of as a doltish layabout was smiling ear to ear, brimming with love for her marefriend and a sense of empowering pride Octavia only rarely saw.

"I have since found a family of my own."

Vinyl squeezed her hoof once more.  "I love you, Tavi."

It took every ounce of her strength but Octavia held back the tears.  She had built walls of stone around her heart, long ago, to protect the mare she was from the world that she knew would never understand her.  The hardships of her youth had made her insides dense and rigid, forging her into something colder than she would have ever wished upon another.  Be that as it was, her voice still cracked into a whispered squeak as she touched a hoof to her lover's ivory-white cheek.  Soundlessly, she brushed aside Vinyl's spiky blue mane and gently kissed her on the lips.

After a few moments silence for the two lovers, the reporter nodded his head, rallied his troops and continued.  

"Wow..."  He clapped his hoofs together in genuine praise.  "Just... wow... Ladies... Lovely, LOVELY ladies... that was REALLY something... What you two gals have here... THAT is something... REALLY special."

Vinyl tugged at the hem of her t-shirt with a hoof and snort-laughed.  "Yeah.  She is.  I even bought the shirt!"  The white tee was a plunging v-neck top.  Across the barrel it was decorated with a cartoon hearts-and-hoofs-day-style heart in the familiar pattern of baby blue, pink and white with the words "SOMEPONY I LOVE IS TRANS".   Octavia chuckled and thumped a hoof to her lover's barrel.  The shirt was a cheesy bit of goofery and Octavia only loved her all the more for it.

The reporter nodded sagely and smiled his gleaming ivory smile in approval.  "AWwwwwWW YEah.  Love it.  LOVE it.  The Dude LOVES it!"  He danced a little jig  and hopped, kicking his heels together as he drew closer to the couple.  "Well, Miss PHIL-HAR-MONICA!"  

He stopped abruptly and  turned to give a rather dramatic glare to the camera.  His brows furrowed.  His jovial tone dropped several octaves into a very serious, stern thing.  "Which IS.  HER.  NAME.  POPS..."  The paternal term came with no small amount of venom.  The Dude held a positively baleful glare for a few seconds of threatening silence as if daring the ghost of Octavia's father to try and take a swing at him through the camera.  Just as quickly, he turned back to the couple with his grin as bright and gleaming with polish as ever.  "Would you feel comfortable as a couch of kittens and Celstia's sunshine to maybe tell all the BEE-AIE-YOO-TIFUL Mares and Stallions at home how you had the GUTS to Drop that KNOWLEDGE Bah-BOMB on ol' Dude McSmirky Today?"

Octavia looked to the stallion with a strange smile. 

"Well, Dood... you see... Ponyville is a wonderful place.  Most of Equestria is, to be perfectly honest... filled with ponies who value kindness... honesty... and above all, love... "

Her smile transformed into something much sterner and straight-lipped as she continued.  " ...but there are some few ponies whom do not value these things so readily as they would proudly claim.  There are some few ponies too set in their ways, dismissive, hurtful, cruel to those they would not care to understand.  They would cause those young colts and fillies pain without a worry in their hearts, as they once did me.  Many others would see this suffering, brought on by such... abominable... SHAMEFUL behaviour... and turn a blind eye to it, goaded by fear, intolerance and the aforementioned cruelty which can only be born from willful ignorance."

Octavia turned from Dude to look directly into the camera with eyes carved from living rock.  

"It is to those colts and fillies I would say... Look around."  She gestured to the crowd of cheering, joyful ponies behind her, dancing, singing, laughing and playing- swinging about in the arms of their loved ones and relishing in the beauty of their lives.  "There ARE ponies, so many of them, who WON'T throw you out.  There are ponies who WILL understand you.  Ponies who WILL respect you."  

She turned her attention to the white unicorn by her side and smiled, stroking her cheek with a hoof.

"...ponies who WILL... love you."

Octavia turned her violet gaze to the camera again, softer now, if still just as powerful and defiant.

"Be strong.  Be brave.  I know that there are ponies that you think of as your world and you are terrified of the ugly things they will say to you and the worse things they will do if they ever knew who you really were... but please, believe me when I say that you are NOT UGLY.  You are not a FREAK.  There is nothing about you that needs to be FIXED because there is NOTHING 'WRONG' with you.  The fault is ALL THEIRS... and there are other ponies in this world, ponies who will love you- the REAL you."

"Don't miss out on them, the ones who will really love you, to save face with the ones who don't."

Vinyl hugged her marefriend tightly as a growing group of ponies behind them cheered in response.

The Dude applauded and joined with the crowd giving a wolf-whistle. "WHOOOOOOOO!  OH YEAH!  THAT is what I am TALKIN' about, here at the Ponyville Pride PAH-RAY-YADE!"   He danced about, pumping his hoofs into the air as the crowd cheered and chanted for the lovers.  Several couples embraced.  Several sets of eyes leaked tears of their own at the powerful truth in the words from Octavia's heart.  The reporter came around them, air-guitaring to the woops and whinnies of the festive audience.   

Covered in confetti again, he addressed the camera with a grin that could devour Luna's moon.  "WHOOOO YEAH!  BIG Love!  BIG-TIME Golden-hearted BLING-TIME!  Words of wisdom from the mare herself, MISS PHIL-HAR-MON-I-CAH!  All you little bits out there, foals and bowls, forks and fillies, colts and cupboards full-of-love, better be listening because THAT was some FAUST'S.  HONEST.  TRUTH!"  The crowd behind them had grown substantially.  Whether drawn initially by the appeal of the camera or the gregarious antics of the reporter, Octavia's heartfelt sincerity had swelled their numbers.  Many now waited to watch the scene and share in this moment with the two mares.

"MISS LADY MA-YAM, Miss Philharmonica, if you would please.  That was some amazingly big love for all the little baubles n' bits watching at home.  DID you lovely LOVE-LY ladies have anything to add for the aforementioned ADULTS out there?"

Octavia raised a hoof and opened her mouth but before her cultured palette had formed the words, she found herself cut off by the familiar raspy voice of her marefriend.

"YEAH, Dude!  I've got something to say!"  Vinyl popped off.  The reporter gave a small bow  and raised his microphone.  The ivory unicorn snatched it from his hoof and glared into the camera.  "Yeah.  Any of you stuffed shirts and old jerks want to talk crap to MY mare?  Any of you want to tell her that she doesn't belong here?  That she's 'not a REAL mare'...?"  Vinyl gave a comically snide tone to the last part, jeering with flared nostrils and clenched hoofs.  

She pulled Octavia to her side possessively.  "Yeah, well, let me tell you- this purple-eyed hottie is One-hundred-percent, prime-cut, all-Equestrian, red-blooded, GRADE-A, fine-ass FILLY and she doesn't need YOUR approval or ANYbody else's to be the most beautiful mare I've ever known!  You hear me, jerk-bags?"

Octavia went wide-eyed.  Her stone-grey face had grown as red as the cutie-mark on Applejack's famous flanks.

"She's a better mare than any of you dill-weeds will EVER deserve to have!  And one of these days, when I FINALLY get my crap together, I'm gonna make her my WIFE!  Think you all can HANDLE THAT?"

Somehow, the red in her flushed face found a way to reach a new shade.  Octavia's violet eyes sparkled like alexandrite.  Every emotion currently playing buckball with her heart was a different shade, a different facet in her gemstone eyes as she looked at the wonderful, weird mare that had captured her heart and was currently playing the part of her Princess Valiant... if also embarrassing the spit out of her.  She touched her own chest in an attempt to calm her heart as it was doing it's level best to 'Yona-SMASH' through the rib-bones of her barrel.  

Looking to her marefriend, her cultured tone could barely manage a whisper...

"Vinyl...!"

The DJ looked back to her with a blank expression as the crowd went completely fruit-bat insane behind them.  "What? "  She rubbed at her head, rustling her spiky, confetti-coated mane.  "Oh... Yeah, well... I mean... not NOW... of course.  I mean..."  She gestured to the home audience with the microphone as the news stallion thanked Faust for this unbelievable day.  "We're in front of... like... a jillion ponies right now... I'm not gonna  put you on the spot like that."  Vinyl gave a shrug and chuckled.  "I KNOW I'm a jack-ass but I'm not THAT much of a jack-ass."

"HEY!"  A gruff shout came from the crowd behind them.  

The white unicorn's eyed narrowed as she turned and scanned the assembly of jumping, laughing, fist-pumping support.  Her eyes went wide in embarrassment and realization as she found the connection.  "Oop-  Dang."  She waved and shouted.  "SORRY CRANKY!  DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!"  She muttered to herself as she returned to look to her marefriend who had come close to her once more.

"Vinyl... that was..."  She leaned into the unicorn and nuzzled her affectionately.  Shutting her eyes, she let herself drift in the moment.  Vinyl was normally a child, a rambunctious juvenile who only lived in the moment and mortified her with her utter lack of propriety.   Then- Sometimes, just sometimes, the lazy wastrel was absolutely just what she had needed- all her life.  She melted into her lover, as a stream into the river.

The unicorn handed the microphone back to McSmirky as she lovingly took her marefriend in her hoofs.  She returned Octavia's nuzzle, practically purring.  She tenderly kneaded the soft grey beauty in her forelimbs, shedding all pretense.  The crowd cheered for them.  The reporter silently applauded.  This was their moment.

They simply held each other for several beautifully perfect seconds- a moment in time that would be the envy of cinematographers for years to come.

Vinyl lowered her hoof to grip a good portion of her marefriend's ample plot and squeeze it, pulling their nethers together  as she nipped on her ear.  "So, you wanna?" 

Octavia drew back, aghast. "VINYL!"

"What?  Aw, come on, Tavi."

"Vinyl, You-!"  The grey mare flailed at her lover's ivory chest and forehead, giving the unicorn to duck and cover, laughing all the while.  "You utter...!  Dimwitted buffoonery...!  I swear...!  Why I EVER...!"

"OW!  Aw, Tavi!  ERK!  Come on, baby!  Oop-!  We do THAT all the time!  I know you like it when ponies can watch."  The vicious barrage of WHAPs, BAPs and BOPs paused in their fury as Octavia's jaw dropped and her red face went ash-white.  Vinyl took the opportunity to rise and drop shields, grinning like an absolute ass.

Octavia glared at her with her pursed lips twisted into a ferocious pout that spoke of a million years worth of lonely nights on the couch in Vinyl's future.  She turned to the reporter and sharply snatched the microphone from his hoof, glaring at the camera-mare.  "You want something more for the home audience, Mister Dood?  Well here's something..."

Behind her, Vinyl grimaced, biting her lip and trying not to snicker like the juvenile putz she was.

Octavia stomped over to the camera, dragging her marefriend behind her.  "Vinyl.  Record. Scratch, A.K.A. 'Dee-Jay P0WN-Three is an absolute chowder-headed imbecile!  A lack-witted jackanape!  A CAD!  An ill-mannered, plot-chasing little cur!  You have NO idea how many times I have drug her off the floor from a pile of potato chip crumblings and empty bottles of Celestia-KNOWS-what manner of foulness!  The filthy Slovenly-  OH!  And the flirting!  She's UNBELIEVEABLE!!  She NEVER does the dishes!  Or the laundry!  Her half of the apartment is an irradiated wasteland nightmare from the darkest corners of The Republic of Dave!  You don't want to KNOW the state she leaves the bathroom in!  She's an infantile, immature, indolent, irresponsible, unappreciative, sloth-like little COUCH CREATURE!  She's an utter child and-"

Octavia paused in her embarrassed, indignant fury to look back to the unicorn.  She looked at those big red eyes once more and tried her level-best to imagine any possible future she could ever have without them...

She sighed.  It was pointless.

"...and..."

Resolved, her course set, a smile overtook her.  

"...and... she is also the mare I love..."  She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, laughing as the tears she had fought so hard to contain just moments ago behind walls of stone decades in the making, finally rolled down her cheeks.  

"...and... I guess we're engaged now."

The crowd exploded.  A roar of voices belted out to the sky as every creature was buried in a shower of rainbow-colored glitter, streamers and confetti.  Colts and fillies giggled and squealed in delight, sharing hugs.  Hundreds of hoofs banged together in applause.  Woops and shouts came all in a joyous chorus and Lovers wrapped themselves in each other's hoofs as lips met and old promises were repeated anew.

Octavia handed the microphone back to the reverently gleeful reporter as she tearfully turned to her mare.  It was now Vinyl's turn to stand wide-eyed, open-mouthed and dumbstruck.  Octavia wrapped her lithe hoofs around her marefriend- now, her fiance- pulled their bodies close together and kissed her.  She kissed her with every ounce of passion in her artist's heart.  Only the sweetest of songs played across the strings in her ears as she pressed her lips into her lady-love's.

The wet heat of her cheeks christened Vinyl's, shaking the stunned unicorn out of her stupor.  Vinyl returned the gesture and reciprocated, pulling them closer together yet and more intimately deepening their kiss.   She groaned in her barrel as she hungrily drank in the tender sweetness of her lover.  Their lips worked and stirred together as they whimpered oh-so-happily in the space between their mouths.  All walls dropped in this moment.  

Vinyl was wrong before.  THIS was their moment.  

She pulled free for only a second to look into those gorgeous violet eyes, looking for the future she knew was in them.  She panted, catching her breath.  "Tavi...?!"  She just realized it.  She was crying now, too.  "A... are you sure?"

Octavia sniffled and choked back her sobbing.  She couldn't stop smiling.  She wanted to muster up the priss to be stuffy with her lover, to say something haughty and playfully prod her with her practiced verbal barbs but found she couldn't.  All she could do was laugh as the tears just continued to stream down her cheeks, occasionally finding a stray shred of confetti and creating a make-shift canoe from it to trail down the rapids of her muzzle, plummeting from her chin as a waterfall.  She wanted nothing more than to lose herself completely in those perfect red eyes.  "I'm going to HOLD you to this, you jerk."  She sniffled hard.

Vinyl wiped at her lover's cheek, smiling so fiercely her cheeks actually hurt.  She laughed.  It seemed her cheeks were so hot, the warmth of her tears was actually refreshingly cool by comparison.  "You BETTER.  'Cuz it's not like we're gonna have a moment like this again..."  

Together they cried and together they laughed as Vinyl hefted Octavia off her hoofs and spun around, laughing with all the genuine, pure affection of a school-mare's first crush.  

The two mares kissed as only the dearest of friends, lovers that truly knew each other ever could.  


"EEEEYOW!  You heard it HERE, Cats and Kittens!  The RAVISHING lady, Miss OCTAVIA PHILHARMONICA and her lay-about lover, one DEE-JAY-POOOOooWN-THREE are soon to be  MAY-REED!  WHOOOOO!  Now THAT is What you GET!  Here in PONYVILLE at the PRIDE PAH-RAYDE!  That is what you GET!  ONLY here, ONLY with your bestest bud, the NEWsiest Sleuth ta BEAT tha STREET,  DUDE, MCSMIRKY!  Stay TUNED, Colts and Fillies, Gryphon-billies,  Dragons and Yaks and Love-bug STACKS!  For all the LOVE that you can Handle and ALL the NEWS that you can PERUSE!  ONLY HERE! On KAY!  TEE!  ARE!  OH!  TEE!  KAY-TROT!!"

"Aaaaand we're off."  Sally the Camera mare lowered the mechanical device from her shoulder.  Turning her cap bill forward, she wiped her own teary cheek with a sniffle and a smile.

The green stallion shook his head, looking back to the young couple as they kissed, again and again, laughing as they cried in each other's embrace and falling together in a pile.

"Sweet Celestia... I LOVE show-biz."



---fin---