-When Darkness Falls-
(George Shearing)
The skyscrapers of Manehattan dominated the skyline as, far below, Octavia and Vinyl trundled their luggage through the busy streets. As she dodged out of the way of another commuter, Octavia was struck by how differently everypony moved in big cities. From the newspaper sellers to the traffic wardens, everypony walked with purpose, as though there was somewhere they desperately had to be and the whole world was standing in the way. They didn't even turn their heads when called to by the street sellers. In Ponyville, she reflected, ponies tended to meander a little, wish a good day to each other if they passed on the street. The going was slow but you got there, and every walk was a pleasant one. But there just didn't seem time for that here. Vinyl, she noted, had taken to the pace like a duck to water, and had affected the same restless stride that characterised Manehattenites. It was hardly surprising.
"We gotta take a left here. If you see any carts, don't get hit," the unicorn said, before lunging casually out into road. Octavia followed at a run, her case rattling behind her.
"Don't do that!" she hissed. Vinyl looked at her as she honestly didn't know what she'd done.
"I was kidding. Nopony gets hit by carts in Manehattan. Traffic's too bad," Vinyl shrugged after taking a second to ponder it. "Foot traffic, anyway. You couldn't take a cart down three roads without hitting somepony in this city, so nopony does. It's an insurance risk."
"...You're messing with me, aren't you?" Octavia asked, her eyes narrowed.
"Only a little. There truly is nothing like a home field advantage, huh?" Vinyl said, her expression perfectly serious. "Don't worry. This bit's pedestrianised. Mainly because everypony kept getting hit by carts."
In lieu of trying to figure out if she was joking or not, Octavia decided to make sure she was never more than a foot away from Vinyl at any one time. That way, if one of them got hit by a cart, they both would.
Eventually, after a trek that would have taken her clear from one side of Ponyville to the other, they arrived at the hotel. It was an imposing thing, fashioned of bricks in soft yellows and what appeared to be a small cafe out front. Octavia hesitated, but the DJ just walked in without a care in the world and rang the service bell to the tune of the national anthem. After a moment of shuffling in the back room, a large, green stallion with a bellhop's hat appeared.
"Ha-llo. How may I be of service, madam?" he said, in an accent that reminded Octavia very much of little Pip's, except picked up and polished a little.
Vinyl looked him up and down with narrowed eyes, then nudged her temple. "You're Rip Offer's brother."
If the green stallion was surprised, he didn't show it. "Indeed, I am. How might a lady such as yourself be acquainted with my brother?"
"He was my landlord a while back. Tried to charge me extra rent for installing a cutlery draw, called it an extra room."
"Thank bloody goodness," the stallion said, his voice dropping an octave and losing all finesse. "Bloody upper class twits, pronouncin' their aitches like idiots. I swear, puttin' on that posh accent gives me more trouble than the secretary, and she's as thick as a barrel o' treacle to boot. What can I do you for?"
"We got reservations. Octavia and Vee Scratch, two bed room."
"Alright, lemme check up on that. Normally I'd just wave you through, but I gotta look like I'm at least tryin' to do things by the book, you understand," he said knowingly, and disappeared into the back room to find a register.
"We do have a reservation, correct?" Octavia asked from the corner of her mouth.
Vinyl smirked. "Yeah, but if we didn't, odds are our names would mysteriously show up in the book anyway. This town never changes."
"...You actually rented a room from somepony called Rip Offer?"
"He didn't use his first name. Besides, he wasn't that bad so long as you got him a pretzel once in a while," the unicorn said, a touch fondly. "Last time I saw him he was as big as a house."
"Well, whaddaya know. You two actually went ahead and got legit reservations. I thought this was another on the 'ouse job. Pretty classy. 'Fraid I got some bad news, though. We're outta two bed rooms. Lucky for a pair like you two, huh?" the stallion said as he came back.
Octavia gave Vinyl a glare. Vinyl blinked, and look to the stallion in appeal, for a moment almost appearing helpless and lost. He was blank for a second, before his mouth settled into a grin.
"Oh, what, you two got that kind of relationship? Well, much as I 'ate to spoil your lover's tiff, miss, your friend there ain't got nothing to do with it. Only our bloody secretary could have arranged this mess. I tell ya, she's got a picture of the reception-- not any reception, mind you, this reception, right down to the bloody potted plants-- on her 'indquarters, and she still manages to be the most useless employee we've ever 'ad. She booked three different conventions for the same week."
Octavia sniffed. "What conventions would these be?"
"Lemme see...The Spoon Collector's Convention, the Butterfly Enthusiasts, and Jam Jar Jamboree. Ain't many of that crowd want marriage beds, if you know what I mean," the stallion said, quite loudly. "Tell you what, though. We'll upgrade you to one of the fancy suites, free of charge. If you're gonna have to sleep in a double bed, may as well be a nice one, right?"
Vinyl glared at him. "If we could get a room at any other hotel at this kind of notice, we'd be straight out of here."
"You think I don't know that?" he groaned. "I'm gonna-- well, I'm not gonna kill the secretary, but I'm gonna give her a piece of my mind she won't forget. Either of you two want room service, you tell 'em I said you get it for free."
Vinyl closed her eyes and frowned, evidently deep in thought. "You can start by giving us some extra pillows and blankets. What wine have you got? We'll take two bottles of the good stuff..."
All said, it was a very nice room-- light, airy, ridiculous amounts of cushions. It had a balcony, too, which offered the same view of the city as every other window in the hotel, but at least tried to be charming, and thick, heavy curtains made of what Octavia was fairly sure would be called 'the good stuff' in fabric circles. The elephant in the room, however, was the bed. It seemed big enough for four ponies, never mind two, and was soft enough that when Vinyl threw her glasses on the covers they sank. As the unicorn unpacked what they'd need for the night, Octavia hovered at the door awkwardly.
"I'm. Well, I mean, sorry that I jumped to conclusions. I should never have suggested that you had planned this."
Vinyl shrugged, evidently in a bad mood, and tossed the extra bedding down in the corner.
"I...No offense meant, Vinyl, but I'm just not comfortable with, well, you know. Sleeping in the same bed."
The unicorn sighed, her shoulders dropping. "I know. That's why I reserved two beds. I already almost blew it once by being too quick about things. I didn't want to make the same mistake again."
All at once, Octavia remembered that soft, dreamy, defeated tone-- wrong tempo-- and shivered. They'd come so far since then. Here, in this strange room, it seemed they had never had that first discussion in Vinyl's kitchen at all.
"I see. Then things went wrong anyway, and I reacted poorly. You must have been scared," the cellist said softly.
"...I don't want to talk about it," the unicorn replied slowly after a second. "You take the bed, I'll sleep on the floor."
With that, she trotted over to the mess of covers in the corner and began, for want of a better word, to nest in them.
"Vinyl, no. You're paying for the room, which means you're paying for that bed, too. I can't let you sleep on the floor whilst I'm in a bed you paid for," Octavia said.
"Yeah? Well, if I paid for the room, that means I paid for the floor, which I'm using at the moment. So kindly get off it and onto the bed," Vinyl said matter-of-factly.
"Vi--"
"Listen, Tavi. You have an audition tomorrow. As in, work," Vinyl said (almost snapped), and nudged her temple. "You need a good night's sleep. Me? All I have to do for that audition is sit down at the start and get up at the end. You get in bed, and I'll sleep on the floor."
That was the nasty thing about a sensible argument. It was so hard to refute. "Fine. But I'll have you know that I'm not happy about this."
"If you were, I'd kick you. Night, Tavi," Vinyl yawned, and turned out the light.
For all of half an hour, Octavia tried her best to get comfortable in the gloom. The noises of the city outside got no quieter as the moon rose, and she found herself sorely missing the small-town quietness of Fillydelphia or the dense, palpable silence of Ponyville. The bed was far too large for her alone; even if she lay right in the centre of it, she could still stretch out as much as possible and not reach the ends of it. It lacked the cosiness of her (admittedly quite shabby) single bed back home. After forty-five minutes, the guilt finally got to her.
"This isn't right, Vinyl. I can't do it. I'm sleeping on the floor," she announced, secretly hoping her companion was asleep already, and climbed out of bed.
A blue glow lit the room and bathed Vinyl's face in unearthly discontent. "No way, Tavi. We went over this. You need to be at your best. Besides, I'm already comfortable."
"Well, I wasn't. I can't sleep anyway, knowing you're on the floor."
"You're impossible," Vinyl hissed, and the blue glow faded.
"Say the pot to the kettle," Octavia murmured, and settled down in the opposite corner. She was privately surprised at how soft the carpet was, but she could feel the floor straight through it when she rolled on her back.
"You are aware how stupid you're being, right?" Vinyl asked flatly after a few minutes.
She was rather more aware now of how uncomfortable the floor was, but decided to say nothing of it. "I'm not being stupid. Just fair."
"We're both sleeping on the floor and there's a perfectly good bed going to waste."
"So why not go and get in it?"
"Because it will give you an excuse to stay on the floor."
"Well, as you can see, I hardly need one, so you may as well get in the bed!"
The bickering continued back and forth for a few moments, before Vinyl said, sourly, "Worst part is, since we're both on the floor, it's the same as if we'd both slept in the bed."
Octavia was about to snap back with a sharp response, but instead held her tongue. She took a deep breath. "Well, if we're going to be sleeping together anyway, we may as well be comfortable."
A second ticked by in the blackness. "...What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that if you get in the bed, I'll get in the bed."
"...Wasn't the whole point--"
"I know what the point was, Vinyl. Truthfully, I probably won't be able to sleep if you're in the bed with me. But I can't sleep if you're on the floor anyway, and I feel like an absolute jerk to boot, and my back already hurts. So frankly I'd rather not sleep in a comfortable bed with you in it, than not sleep on an uncomfortable floor with you on it," Octavia snapped.
"...We'll make a pillow wall," Vinyl said at last.
"Deal," Octavia sighed. "Now get in the bed. I'll follow."
After a second of fumbling around in the darkness and a creaking of bedsprings, they found themselves lying back to back in the centre of the bed. Octavia could feel Vinyl's body heat on her shoulder blades.
"Vinyl, did we really have an argument over that?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah."
"We're idiots, aren't we."
"Yeah. You going to help make that pillow wall?"
"Don't bother," Octavia yawned. "Just sleep with your back to me and we'll be fine. We must have wasted half the night quarrelling."
"If you're tired for your performance tomorrow, don't blame me," Vinyl said, finally.
"I shall blame the hotel, and be done with it. Goodnight, Vi."
"Night."
Octavia was awake long enough to see the stars begin to wink in the cloudless sky. But not much longer than that.