Through Scarlet Eyes

by FaleYur


Recollection

As it turns out, a kitchen table is not a bad substitute for a bed when one is drunk and exhausted. To the untrained eye, Vinyl would appear miserable, snoring and twitching in her sleep, slowly spreading the growing pool of saliva over the tabletop.

But for the first time in a week, she was happy. Happy because she was with Octavia, reliving their first date, and not in the waking world, where she would surely have a hangover and a giant mess to clean up. She could indulge in a couple more hours of sweet, sweet amethyst eyed beauty. And that’s exactly what she was going to do. Even if it was only in her dreams.

***

Vinyl practically skipped through the lavish entrance of the restaurant, pausing only to hold the door for her newfound marefriend.

“Why thank you good pony!” Octavia giggled as she passed into the warmth and light of the building.

“Oh not a problem ma’am, just doing my civiled duty.” Vinyl replied cheekily, mimicking her date’s tone and accent. The effect was somewhat ruined by the stifled laughter threatening to emerge from her muzzle.

“I think you mean ‘civic’ duty Vinyl, and I think that it’s best to leave the smooth talking up to me tonight, seeing how you practically butchered your attempt earlier.” Octavia reminded her not so subtly. She flashed her unicorn a coy smile to make up for it though, and the simple action left Vinyl speechless.

The mirth dropped from Vinyl’s demeanour, replaced by embarrassment at the memory of her not-so graceful endeavour to ask out the cellist, and a hot flush.

“Hey now, it’s not my fault that I was born without the ‘gift of gab’ your highness.” She retorted. “And besides, it worked, didn’t it?”

“Only because I find blushing, stammering DJ’s adorable. Now come. Let’s find a booth.”

Vinyl saluted. “Aye aye cap’m! Onwards, to glory!” she declared, trooping past Octavia, who watched her saunter along, following those snowy legs, allowing her eyes to wander…

NO. A lady must not lose composure like that. What would her mother say?

Laughable. Octavia knew exactly what her mother would say. Something along the lines of ‘a woman’s privacy’ or ‘uncouthness such as this…’ blah blah blah. Keeping her gaze on more appropriate things, she weaved through tables in Vinyl’s wake.

Finding an adequate spot, Vinyl pulled out Octavia’s chair before seating herself in her own, and pulling out a menu. It had always confused her why they bothered printing the menus in French, when the vast majority of Manehattan spoke English.

Scanning down the unintelligible list for something that she could make out, she noticed that even though her date had her menu out as well, the laminated paper was not what was holding the mare’s attention. Gorgeous violet irises peered over the top of the forgotten menu, studying every aspect of the DJ. From the glint off of her glasses, to the jagged, unevenness of her two toned hair, to her snout which was wrinkled in a cute fashion trying to decipher the foreign language. Octavia didn’t realize that behind Vinyl’s shades, her garnet eyes were locked on her own. This became apparent when a cocky smile split Vinyl’s face, and the menu was slapped sharply down on the oaken table, drawing some looks from nearby patrons, and a dark blush from the cellist.

“See anything you like?” Vinyl asked, a little too innocently. “Whatever it is, I sure hope it’s affordable. The prices here are nuts!” she continued, greatly enjoying the muttered excuses and explanations coming from across the table.

Vinyl grinned, and turned back to the menu, leaving Octavia to her thoughts. Shortly afterwards, following a prolonged silence between the two mares, Vinyl gave up and resigned to simply play ‘eenie meenie minie moe’ with her food choices.

“Eenie meenie minie… this one!” she concluded, and bought her hoof down on ‘Laitue al la Diable’.

“Are you sure Vinyl?” Octavia asked uncertainly. When prompted by a nod of the DJ’s head she rolled her eyes and quipped, “Alright. But we’d better ask for a second pitcher of water.”

Vinyl glanced down at her choice once again, and suddenly didn’t feel so exuberant about her decision. “Umm… why?”

Octavia giggled.

"Oh don’t worry. You’ll see.”

Eeyup. Definitely not sure anymore.

But by that time it was too little too late. The waitress, a petite yellow Pegasus mare in an elegant uniform approached, and jotted down both of their orders, Octavia’s simple salad, and Vinyl’s apparently super-secret dish.

“I’m going to regret this aren’t I?” she said as she watched wide eyed as their server placed another hefty jug of ice water down at their table.

“You maybe,” Octavia laughed, seeing the expression of terror on her date’s face. “But I’m certainly going to enjoy the show.”

She and the waitress shared a knowing smile before the latter departed to fill their orders.

While they waited for their food, the two musicians idly chatted, telling each other stories of when they were fillies, (Vinyl was going to regret some of them later) their musical careers, and genre interests.

“You mean you’ve never heard of DeadHor5?” the unicorn interrupted, turning some heads at adjacent tables for the umpteenth time that night. “Geez, you really haven’t lived yet then!” she chided.

“Just because I don’t listen to this ‘Dubstep’ does not imply that I am an inanimate object. And besides, you probably don’t listen to orchestras, so we’re even.”

Vinyl’s witty reply of “Of course I listen to orchestras! When I want to fall asleep in five minutes.” Was disrupted by the arrival of their long awaited food. All of Vinyl’s fantasies about it, and what it could possibly be were brought up short at the sight of her plate. Her stomach dropped. It was an eye appealing layer of lettuce perforated by jalapeño and ghost peppers, drizzled in what could only be a chipotle mayonnaise dressing.

It looked beautiful, but it couldn’t muffle the rising feeling of uneasiness that Vinyl felt. She had never done well with spicy foods, the most she could handle being the hot nachos that she and her friends had devoured at a party some years ago. This meant trouble.

But because she didn’t spend all those bits for nothing, (and because she didn’t want Octavia to think of her as a wimp) she wrapped her fork in a white telekinetic haze and dipped it into the greens.

Octavia looked on, amused by her marefriend’s plight, her own food untouched before her. She goaded the unicorn with her eyes to hurry it up already. Vinyl gulped, and relocated the bite into her open mouth.

This isn’t so ba- HOLY BUCK!

Her glass of water was empty within seconds. Setting down the cup and spluttering, she glared over at Octavia, who was doing her very best not to roll in her chair laughing. Unfortunately for Vinyl, she wasn’t doing a very good job.

“P-priceless!” Octavia gasped, glee now spilling from her mouth and echoing back around the room. “Positively priceless!”

It was hard to stay mad at the cellist. Damn her and her attractive laugh.

“Okay, I definitely wasn’t ready for that.” The DJ summed up. Just to show the gorgeous grey mare that she was in fact brave enough, she took another bite. This time only half of the water was drained from the glass. Octavia mock applauded in approval and finally sobered up enough to start grazing on her own food.

The rest of the dinner went on without any extra-ordinary interactions, dragons or a certain God of Chaos. Vinyl could feel herself quivering with excitement (both in her dream and out) as the date drew to a close, her favorite part of the night approaching. The grand finale, the piece de résistance.

She had committed this moment to memory. First, Octavia would finish her salad, then look up to find Vinyl staring at her. She would smile, then scoot closer, so close that they were almost touching. Vinyl would lean in first, closely followed by the cellist, and finally they would give themselves over to the primal urges of the- huh?

When her lips met nothing but air, Vinyl cracked one eye open in confusion. This wasn’t what she remembered. What she saw nearly froze her blood. Octavia was staring at her, in the same disbelieving fashion as when- no, she didn’t want to think about that. The script that followed, was all too familiar to her. Word for word, the grey mare repeated her speech, each sentence ripping through Vinyl for the second time in her life.

“V-Vinyl? Why?” tears started to cut tracks in her face as they escaped from underneath her closing eyelids. Vinyl tried to say something, but Octavia just scrunched her eyelids tighter together and kept talking, as if Vinyl wasn’t even there, as if she didn’t exist.

“W-why did you stop me? I… I could have s-saved him... I could have been there for him, I could have-”

Vinyl reeled backwards. No, this couldn’t happen again. Oh no please no.

“OCTAVIA!” Vinyl yelled, desperate to stop this before it went down the same road as before. The rest of the ponies in the restaurant went about everything like this was a normal occurrence, chatting, dining, laughing, and not giving the pair a second glance. “LISTEN TO YOURSELF, LISTEN TO ME!” she pleaded. But the love of her life just carried on, as if not interrupted at all.

Rain began to pound on the windows. That didn’t make any sense! It was supposed to be a warm night! Vinyl was supposed to walk Octavia back to her house, and kiss her goodnight under the porch light! She was-

“But you stopped me!” Octavia practically screamed. “You were selfish like you always were! You were thoughtless to anyone but yourself! You’re disgusting!”

Vinyl felt her own tears flowing freely now. She knew what was coming next, and she couldn’t hear it again. Please, not again. Frantically, she reached over and grabbed Octavia’s wrist.

Immediately, the scenery changed. They were on the sidewalk outside of Octavia’s parent’s house, rain beating mercilessly down on her neck, and wind whipping their surroundings into submission. The cellist wrenched her hoof away from Vinyl’s. Octavia slowly backed away, the fear and tears replaced by an expression of animal fury.

“I hate you.”

It was barely loud enough to be heard over the escalating wind, but it reached Vinyl’s ears loud and clear. Her heart broke. Again. She stood stock still, her anguish spilling out of her in ragged gasps as she watched Octavia step off of the sidewalk and onto the road, still facing her, the look of rage still plastered onto her face. The look was out of place, it didn’t belong on the mare. And yet there it was taking residence. Vinyl’s vision tunnelled, and all she could see was Octavia, still backing onto the asphalt.

She didn’t notice the telltale screaming of wheels until the last second. She didn’t get the strangled cry of warning out of her numb lips in time. She could only watch as the carriage, the one that was meant for Octavia’s father, close the distance between itself and the oblivious mare.

Taunting whispers came in from all sides, growing in volume, and getting faster and faster as Vinyl watched, unable to move.

“IhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIHATEYOUIHA-”

“OCTAVIA!”

***

Vinyl whipped her head up from her puddle of drool with a scream, the cellist’s name bursting from her mouth and into the air. Her chair tipped a little too far back, and fell with a resounding crash to the floor. Vinyl scrambled to her hooves and barely made it to the bathroom before the bile came up.

Coughing and retching, she heaved over the toilet until she had purged all of the alcohol from her system. She then lay on her side, clutching her chest, and sobbing.

“Octavia… I’m sorry… Octavia…”

All of her energy was gone. She simply lay on the ceramic until she felt sure that she could stand up. Getting shakily to her hooves once more, Vinyl hazarded a glance at her reflection. A dirty, sagging mess of a pony stared back, the bags under her eyes prevalent, her lifeless hair drooping around her ragged face.

She glared at her bloodshot eyes, and reached for her glasses. With a shock, and a groan, she realized that they were missing. She almost broke down and started to cry again, before catching herself. She knew where they would probably be, but she was in no state to go there alone.

She tidied herself up a bit, and after looking herself over to make sure she was at least halfway presentable, she headed out of the apartment.

She was going to see a friend.