As the night continued on, the temperature had began to drop, only aiding in the snow itself. A small blanket had covered the ground that didn’t happen to be in the middle of the road. Now, most sane ponies would be rushing inside to be welcomed by the warmth of their home and loved ones. It was certainly not the time to be outside at all, let alone wandering alone. But Octavia knew where she wanted to go. Tonight, unlike others, had been surprisingly better compared to other nights. There were no gale force winds that blew the socks off of somepony and the snow was light, which meant it could be brushed away easily.
To Octavia, who used a hoof to fix her winter coat, none of this mattered. The only thing, or should she say the pony, she could even think about was her roommate. Three simple words had driven her away from their shared apartment and out into the cold. Three Celestia-damned words had caused her to panic and leave. How she remained so calm in that situation, nopony knows. Octavia thought of Vinyl’s face the moment she had confessed her undying love for her. It was like staring straight into the eyes of somepony under the influence of a love potion, except... Vinyl wasn’t. If it had been somepony else, then the situation would have been dealt with maturely and with a conversation.
Octavia ran through the scene for the millionth time that night, and finally realized she had acted like a frightened foal. Who wouldn’t? It could have been a lot worse. At least I didn’t laugh in her face she thought. She had reached her destination, sighing with relief. Now she could finally get out of this weather.
~
“Fire crackling? Check. Good book? Check. Hot chocolate?” Lyra took a sip of the steaming cup. She smiled and set it back down. “Check! A very delicious check, if I may add,” she said to herself, opening the book and beginning to read. It was a book recommended to her yesterday. Reading books wasn’t really something she did for fun, but Lyra can never turn down a thrilling Science Fiction adventure. Bon Bon, a good friend of hers, had given it to her as a birthday present. A kind gift that had been living on Lyra’s shelf for a year now. Since the mood was right and the growing sense of boredom she was experiencing, Lyra had decided to take it off her shelf and start reading.
She had just finished the first chapter when somepony had knocked on her door. Lyra sighed, getting up from her oh so comfortable spot on the couch and making her way toward the door. She wasn’t really expecting anypony to come over to her home at this hour, so seeing Octavia stand there in the snow in front of her house was a bit surprising.
“Good evening, Miss Heartstrings,” Octavia replied formally. Lyra giggled.
“C’mon, Octavia. We’ve known eachother forever! No need to be so formal,”
“Sorry. Force of habit,”
Would you like to come inside? The weather seems to be getting worse by the hour,”
“That would be lovely, thank you,” Octavia trot past her mint green friend and into the safety and warmth of Lyra’s cozy abode. The grey musician set down her saddlebag, admiring the welcoming feel of her living room. “I’m sorry for disturbing you this evening”
“Nah, it’s a pleasure to have you over! I was just, uh, reading n’ stuff,” Octavia smiled.
“You? Reading?”
“Why not, huh? I’ve got nothin’ else to do,” Lyra shrugged.
“Do you still practice your instrument?” Octavia asked, laying down on one of Lyra’s loveseats.
“Everyday! I just do that in the morning. So, can I ask why you’re here at such a late time? It’s not like you to randomly show up at my house,” Octavia nodded and gave a heavy sigh, laying her head on the armrest.
“Lyra, what I’m about to tell you does not leave this room under any circumstance. Do you understand?” Lyra smiled.
“You can count on me! So, what is it? Gossip? News? A secret spy? GOSSIP?” Octavia held up a hoof, silencing the excited mare.
“I... I really don’t know how to explain this. This evening I came home from a concert to Vinyl like most nights. She’s sleeping on the couch, I wake her, we talk about the concert, et cetera. Then, she starts to ask me for advice. Apparently she has this one pony that she fell head over hooves for. It was romantic, even for Vinyl. I tell her what anypony would tell a love stricken pony in this situation. I said to be forward, confident, and honest. To look her” Lyra was about to chime in. “In a second. To look her in the eye and tell her the truth. Then she...looked toward me and told me she loved me,” The reaction Lyra had to this wasn’t what Octavia had expected at all.
“Really? That’s great! I’m so happy for you two,”
“What?”
“You came over to tell me the news, right? Aww, I knew you two were a cute couple,” Octavia was dumbfounded, giving Lyra a quizzical look. “What?”
“This isn’t a good thing!”
“Oh.... It isn’t?
“N-No!” Octavia stammered. “We’ve been friends forever and now she just springs this on me out of the blue?!”
“Octavia, I don’t think deep feelings for another pony appear ‘Out of the blue.’ Considering both of you have been really close for a lifetime, I wouldn’t be surprised. IN FACT, Bon Bon owes me 20 bits,” Lyra said matter-of-factly. Octavia let out a heavy sigh, debating whether or not it had been a good idea to go to Lyra for advice or comfort. “Alright, alright, I’ll be serious. Do you love her back?” Octavia seemed a bit surprised by the question.
“Well, I, uh, haven’t really thought about it...”
“Really?”
“Give me a break Lyra, this happened to me only moments ago” Octavia snapped back, her comment coming out harsher than she intended it to sound.
“Sheesh, alright. You must be pretty worked up about this,”
“It’s just something that totally threw me for a loop,”
“Don’t take any offence to this, but couldn’t you have just had a talk with her to work everything out? I think you might be overreacting a little bit,”
“Well, that, um, was definitely a possibility, but I just couldn’t look at her after she told me. I’ve always taken matters of love a bit more seriously than other ponies. I’ve only dated one other stallion in my life, and it seemed to only last until he moved away. To tell you the truth, I’m not so much into love like I was when I was younger. Everypony I knew had a marefriend or a coltfriend, so I figured it must have been the popular thing to do. Now...love comes close to never, and when I was put into that situation, I didn’t know how to react,” Lyra sat in silence for a couple of moments before she spoke.
“So, what do you think of her now?”
“I don’t think anything less of her whatsoever. We grew up together and shared too many experiences to let something like this get in the way of our friendship. At least, that’s what I believe. Now I just know that she has this admiration for me that has been developing over the past couple of years and I just became shocked and confused. I guess that’s why the rational part of me flew out the window when I had left, Octavia played with her mane, thinking back to Vinyl.
“Do you like her?”
“Well, of course I like her. She’s my friend” Lyra shook her head.
“No, do you like her in the way that she likes you? Do you love her?” silence followed this question, just as before. Octavia opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself as she thought about this question for a few moments more.
“Lyra... I don’t know. It might sound like a cop-out or an excuse, but I really don’t know. A part of me is saying that I don’t and a relationship would compromise things. Then another, tiny part of me says that maybe, just maybe, I could give it a chance for Vinyl’s sake. I know that sounds terrible, but what’s the worst that can happen?”
“Whenever a pony says that, something bad usually happens,”
“Lyra!”
“Sorry! Hey, Octavia, thanks for coming over and talking to me. I’m glad I know that you can trust me,” Octavia narrowed her eyes.
“Can I? Will you promise not to tell anypony else?” Lyra gave Octavia a salute.
“You have my word,” Octavia gave a single nod and sunk back into the loveseat, closing her eyes.
“Thank you for letting me talk with you. I’m just worried about Vinyl,”
“I’m sure she’s fine!”
~
For Vinyl Scratch, these past few hours could not have gone any slower. Every minute felt longer and, over that long stretched period of time, her mane, coat, and tail became a tangled mess. Vinyl’s eyes filled with tears for the umptenth time that evening, her hooves matted with dried tears from before, but she didn’t care. Nothing really mattered to her anymore. Octavia, the pony she cared for and trusted the most, surely hated her for being a fillyfooler. She rolled over in her bed, clutching the sheets and sobbing hard into them. Tonight was supposed to be magical. Vinyl had just thought, even if she turned her down, that’d they would still at least be friends. All confidence and hope about an evening filled with romance dissipated when Octavia frantically trot right out the door. After that, it felt as if the world around her came crashing down. Is it even worth it? she wondered, wiping at her eyes. She got up from the bed, traveling to the bathroom. Vinyl turned on the light, looking into the mirror and surveying the damage. Her mane was tangled to high hell and she suspected that her tail was in the same boat. Her eyes were red from crying, which was no surprise. Vinyl sighed sadly, shrugging at her reflection. She thought, at this point, that there was no point in crying anymore. She surrounded a brush in her magic, hopelessly trying to brush her mane back to its spiky form once again. Maybe if I get some sleep that I’ll forget about all of this Vinyl put the brush back down in defeat, making a mental note to shower in the morning. By morning, I’ll be fine, right?
“Right?”