//------------------------------// // When I Was Your Mare // Story: The Incredibly Musical Life of Octavia Philharmonica & Vinyl Scratch // by The Autumn Princess //------------------------------// ~Chapter Five~ ~When I Was Your Mare~ Vinyl stared out the window of her single apartment, watching the rain pour. She thought of Octavia, happy with a new mare. The alabaster unicorn slammed the window with her hoof, cringing as the flimsy glass splintered beneath her hoof. Cursing under her breath, the DJ whimpered and did nothing for her injury as she glanced outside, with the screen now being the only shield to prevent from the precipitation entering her home. She'd fix the window, and herself, later. The pain in her foreleg was nothing compared to the one in her heart. How could she have let Octavia go? The grey mare had been the best thing that ever happened to her. Now, she was one of those lifeless ponies, sitting around feeling sorry for herself....well, to be honest, Vinyl was always that way - but when Octavia came into her life, everything changed. She'd been happy. She didn't act it, but she'd been so very happy. That cellist had turned Vinyl into an absolutely different pony... in the best way possible. And yet, like the saying goes, it didn't last forever. Vinyl sighed, remembering the day everything had fallen apart. "Tavi, listen to me-" "No!" Octavia spat, her tone of voice practically spewing venom. "What? What is it, Vinyl? Some lame excuse you think I'm dumb enough to believe?!" "I love you!" Vinyl shouted. Octavia scoffed. "That's why you treat me like a marefriend, right? That's why you do all the things marefriends are supposed to do, right?" She spewed sarcasm, and it definitely wasn't her usual playful type. It was the literal kind, that tore into Vinyl's heartstrings. "Listen, Tavi, I'm sorry, really, I-" "No." "But, please, just lemme-" "I said, no." Octavia declared, as tears began to form in her beautiful lavender eyes. "You've spent maybe an hour with me this entire week. Admittedly, that's twenty minutes more than last week, but that isn't enough, Vinyl." "What?" Vinyl raised an eyebrow and tried to play it off all cool-like, but alas... "Nooo, no way. I mean, seriously, besides, cut me some slack, y'know? The club's making me work extra and-" "I believe I've cut you enough slack." the cellist snapped. "We knew this would be hard..." "I didn't think 'hard' meant being alone every night." Octavia replied irritably. "You haven't been home in time for bed in quite some time now." "Do you know what it's like? Lying in bed all alone, just waiting for the one you love to be there? And," a single tear fell yet she refused to break down. "You realize that the way they treat you - it seems almost like they don't even return the feelings?" Vinyl blinked slowly and fumbled over her words. "Tavi, listen, I really do love you, I swear. I know I can seem like a jerk sometimes, but c'mon, it's not like we can have this whole Happily Ever After junk, y'know?" Octavia wiped her tears and let out a sniffle. "I never said I wanted that." she declared. "But to have somepony there for me, at my concerts, or to hold me close at night, or take me out once in a while, that's all I wanted, Vinyl." Her expression turned to stone and she shook her in disbelief. "But it looks like you can't even give me so much as that." Vinyl thought about Octavia in the hooves of somepony else, dancing and having a good time. Tears brimmed the DJ's crimson eyes and she let out a light sniffle. If only she could turn back time and make it all ok... Vinyl looked at the bouquet of dead roses that she had never sent to Octavia. The unicorn wondered if Octavia's new special somepony would buy her flowers. She wondered if Octavia was out with them right now, holding hooves on a park bench. Vinyl died at the thought that this new pony was doing all the things she should have done when she had the chance. "Stupid." she muttered to herself. "Stupid, stupid, stupid." There were lots of idiotic and reckless things Vinyl had done in her life... but letting Octavia go had to have been the worst. Vinyl picked up the dead roses with her magic and concentrated. It was quicker this time, the flowers blooming back to life. Vinyl attached a card with Octavia's name printed on the front. This time she would send them. This time, Octavia would get the flowers Vinyl should have given her ages ago. ...She would probably never respond, or even so much as throw the flowers out the second she knew who they were from, but at least it would erase a part of Vinyl's guilt. She carried the flowers in her magic aura and carried them all the way to the post office. "Can I deliver these to Octavia Philharmonica?" the unicorn asked the pony at the counter. With a raised eyebrow, the pony working the counter let out an annoyed sigh, flipping throughout the files. "I can't find anypony under that last name," they muttered. "You sure you're talkin' 'bout the right mare?" "Of course I am," Vinyl said simply. "She might also be under Octavia Melody...?" "I got an Octavia Horseshoepin here. She lives up in the Canterlot Hills, near the Main Line," the worker let out a low whistle and chuckled. "Got herself a nice mansion too." The DJ's heart dropped. So, Tavi was up there, with riches and anything at her hoof's wave, was she? ...Well, there wasn't any worry that Octavia wasn't being treated properly. "I'll send these there then, if I can." Vinyl placed the flowers on the counter and the pony behind the register raised an eyebrow. "You know she's retired, right? She hasn't taken any fan gifts in a while." "It's not a fan gift. She's an old friend," Vinyl clarified. The mailpony shrugged and slid a sheet of paper towards the unicorn. Vinyl took a pen in her magical hold and wrote but a few simple words: 'I'm so sorry. Love, Vinyl.' ...that was all she could say, and truly, that was all that really mattered.