It was a cold, dark morning when the train pulled into its destination. Although the weather wasn’t cold enough for it to be snowing yet, nopony could honestly say that the weather wasn’t freezing, and of the few ponies waiting at the station for their loved ones, almost all of them were wearing scarves or boots to keep warm. The breaths of ponies could be seen in the air as they silently waited, shivering slightly and walking around aimlessly to warm their bodies up in what little ways they could.
Slowly, the passengers of the train exited to the platform, wincing as they realised how cold it was outside at this time of morning. Celestia wasn’t due to raise the sun for another few hours, and so nopony could blame the ponies for swearing under their breaths at the cold weather, or doing small jogs on the spot to warm themselves up as they waited for their luggage to be removed from the train. But every rule has its exception, and so as the ponies departed the train and began shivering from the cold, there was one pony who instead revelled in the freezing weather.
“Oh man, how cool is this, Octavia?” asked Vinyl Scratch as she stepped off the train and onto the platform. The white unicorn mare slowly walked around a little, grinning as though she’d gotten off the train to find a bar where the station should be.
“…Please don’t tell me that that was an intentional pun, Vinyl,” Octavia sighed, shivering and rolling her shoulders slightly. “And what exactly is supposed to be cool about this? It’s just a station.”
“It’s not the station that’s the cool thing – it’s the weather!” said Vinyl, grinning.
“And the destruction of all decent humour continues,” muttered Octavia under her breath.
“See, check this out –” Vinyl breathed out, allowing her breath to fog up in the chilly air “– how cool is it? It’s like I’m an ice-breathing dragon or something! Man, I’d be such a badass dragon!”
“It’s certainly…impressive, Vinyl,” said Octavia, “but is this weather worth it?” She shivered once more. “I wish that they’d hurry up unloading the luggage, so that I can head home. A nice mug of tea in bed – that’s what would be cool.”
“Eh, it’s better than the Amarezon, with that damn humid atmosphere all day,” Vinyl said. She grimaced for a moment before returning to a grin. “I mean, would you rather be there, or here, Octy?”
“Urgh, don’t even remind me of that place,” said Octavia, also briefly grimacing. “After everything we went through there, I suppose you’ve got a point – the cold weather of a train station at three in the morning is certainly preferable to being bitten by mosquitoes-”
“- tied up and nearly eaten by giant spiders –”
“– fighting mummy ponies in a sealed off temple –”
“– running away from that tribe of ponies who tried to kill us - ”
“ – and don’t even get me started on that damn Baron,” Octavia finished, frowning now too. “Although Stumblefeather was quite friendly, now that I think about it. Regardless, you couldn’t get me to return to the Amarezon Jungle for all the bits in Equestria.”
“Still, we got what we went for, eh?” Vinyl asked, playfully hitting Octavia with a hoof. Octavia raised an eyebrow sceptically.
“You mean you got what you went for,” Octavia pointed out. “What was supposed to be a leisurely holiday for me turned into…into…into something out of a bad adventure story! It was just one disaster after the other.”
Vinyl shrugged. “The way I figure it, it toughened us up for all the other adventures we’ll somehow find ourselves in,” she said. She scowled. “Although yeah, I sure as hell wouldn’t want to go back there either.”
Somehow, Octavia found herself grinning now. “Well, I suppose at least one good thing came out of the whole thing,” she said. “I – no, we- each found a new friend.”
What had been Vinyl’s scowl swiftly turned into a grin – it seemed that the unicorn couldn’t stop smiling for even a minute. “Yeah, you’re pretty badass, Octavia – and even if I did sorta screw you over at the start of the whole thing, I’m glad you were there with me through the whole thing. You’re a cool pony.”
As Octavia opened her mouth to reply, she found herself interrupted by the train’s conductor, calling out that all of the luggage had been removed and sorted and that the ponies should go and collect it. “Well… I suppose that that is that then,” she said after a brief pause, shrugging. “No reason not to grab our luggage and head our separate ways, is there?”
“Nah, I guess not…” said Vinyl slowly, raising the purple glasses she had been wearing and looking Octavia in the eye. There was a moment of awkwardness between the two, before Octavia raised a hoof at the same time that Vinyl took a step forwards and prepared to hug the Earth pony. After another brief moment of confusion as each mare realised what the other was trying to do, Vinyl took a step backwards and accepted Octavia’s hoof, shaking it.
“Nice knowing you, Octavia,” said Vinyl, not sure what else to say. Somehow, the statement didn’t capture the friendship that had been built between the two over their adventure, but at the same time, everything else that Vinyl thought of made it sound as though the two had been friends for years – or worse, that the two were in a relationship.
“The same to you, Vinyl,” said Octavia, smiling warmly. “As I said, I’m going to head home now, but this was… I don’t know whether I’d say it was exactly nice, but it was certainly…something.”
“Yeah…it sure was,” said Vinyl, smiling slightly. The two mares both realised that they’d been shaking hooves for a little too long now and each let go, feeling like the bigger idiot. Octavia and Vinyl each said goodbye again, and then Octavia left to retrieve her luggage and go home. It was only when Vinyl herself was heading home a short while later that she realised the huge mistake she’d made.
I forgot to find out where she lives, so we can go out drinking like I suggested on the train!
============================
Clearing her throat and adjusting her bowtie slightly, Octavia stepped over to her cello. She’d been home for a few days now, but had found neither the time nor energy to practice so far. But now for the first time since she had gotten back from the Amarezon Jungle she had an open window of time, and she wasn’t going to waste it.
Octavia took a deep breath as she put her hooves and her bow to the cello. She had been lucky enough to already find an orchestra in need of a cellist since she had returned from the jungle and thus should have begun practicing the pieces she had been assigned, but she was too impatient. It had been too long since she had been able to simply express herself, to play music from the heart. And so it was that after neglecting her cello for so long, Octavia began to play.
The rhythm began slowly as the Earth pony closed her eyes and slowly went over the thoughts in her head. What did she want to express? How was she feeling? Before too long, her body went on autopilot, the tones coming out exactly the way Octavia wanted without even thinking about it. As the music continued to speed up to a more dramatic pace, Octavia found herself smiling, her eyes still closed. It’s moments like this, she thought, where everything just…makes sense. I don’t have to worry about any problems. I don’t have to worry about my past or my future. It’s only the present I care about, and the present is wonderful.
“Hey Octavia, where do you keep your bread? I feel like a sandwich.”
Octavia’s hooves slipped as the unexpected distraction broke her concentration, and like a record scratch, an awful screech came from her cello. “V-Vinyl Scratch?” she spluttered, opening her eyes to find Vinyl poking her head through the door.
“Ayo, what’s up?” Vinyl asked, her innocent stare turning to a large grin as she spoke.
“What are – how did you get in here?” Octavia asked, fumbling for the bow she dropped.
“Came in through a bathroom window,” said Vinyl casually. “Now, about that sandwich…”
“It never occurred to you to simply knock at the door?” Octavia asked, sighing as she sat down onto her bed.
“My method seemed easier,” said Vinyl. “Although the bathroom window was a bit tight…have you considered moving house? Might make it easier for me to get in in the future.”
Rather than questioning this logic, Octavia instead asked, “Vinyl, what are you doing here?”
“Well, the other night when we said goodbye, I realised that you hadn’t given me any contact details so we could hang out again, right?”
“Hadn’t I?” asked Octavia, confused. “I could have sworn I-”
“-broke into the public records office, since I gave up after asking a few ponies if they knew you,” Vinyl continued, not having heard Octavia. “And now I’ve got an official warning from the guard! Oh, and I also found out where you lived, so I decided to come and visit.”
“Vinyl, I’m flattered that you went to all that effort, but are you sure that I didn’t give you my contact details?” Octavia asked. “I swear that I gave you this address at the station.”
Vinyl shook her head. “Nope, I didn’t get anything from you. Like I said, public records office, guards, bathroom window and whatnot.” There was a brief pause as Vinyl considered something, frowning slightly as she avoided Octavia’s gaze. “…You did mean to tell me where you lived, yeah?”
“Of course! Why wouldn’t I? I may have wanted to murder you – or at the very least cripple you – near the start of our jungle adventure, but by the end I was happy to call you a good friend!” Octavia exclaimed. “You haven’t been worrying about this, have you? Vinyl, I apologise for not giving you my address that night, but I was very tired and wanted to get home and, well… I suppose I must have forgotten in my haste to come back here. I’m sorry if you – you haven’t been worrying about our friendship, have you?”
“Nah, of course not!” said Vinyl. “I mean, I had a doubt or two, but they were nothing probably.” In spite of Vinyl’s words, Octavia thought that the unicorn still looked somewhat worried.
“What’s the matter?” Octavia asked reassuringly.
“…You don’t mind this, do you?” Vinyl asked, surprising Octavia.
“Not in the slightest,” answered Octavia after a brief moment of consideration. “Admittedly, I was in the middle of playing my cello and you broke my concentration somewhat, but I think that I can spare a few hours of playing for a visit from a good friend, don’t you?”
Vinyl grinned nervously. “If you’re sure. Guess this was sort of unannounced, wasn’t it?”
“Well as I said, the only thing I had planned for the rest of the day was playing my cello, so it’s hardly ruining my day,” said Octavia sincerely. “Was there anything you wanted to do once you broke i- I mean, once you were inside the house?” Playfully, she added, “Other than eating all of my food?”
Vinyl shrugged. “I dunno, I guess I just wanted to…talk and stuff? I didn’t really plan that far in advance,” she said, grinning sheepishly.
“Well then, would you like to follow me to the kitchen whilst I make us lunch, and we can talk then?” Octavia suggested. “Or do you want to wait in the lounge room?”
“I think I’d… I’d like to lie down for a little bit,” said Vinyl, stepping forwards and crashing onto Octavia’s bed next to the Earth pony. “Don’t worry about the food…” she mumbled, waving a hoof. It was then, when Vinyl was next to Octavia, that Octavia noticed something she hadn’t earlier.
“Vinyl, are these…glass shards in your mane?” she asked, briefly moving her hoof through Vinyl’s mane to double check. “When you say you came through a bathroom window…”
“I’ll pay you back for it, Octy, I promise,” said Vinyl, rolling over. “Just…give me a minute to lie here and then I’ll be good.”
It’s a miracle that she’s not bleeding, noted Octavia. And that she had enough strength to say exactly what she really needed to before getting so weak, come to think of it. A moment later, as Octavia had another glanced at Vinyl, she realised that the other mare had fallen asleep. Or possibly unconscious. It was hard to tell with ponies who voluntarily leapt through windows.
“Guess we’ll have to have that talk some other time, Vinyl,” said Octavia, chuckling to herself. “Just so long as you don’t try and convince me to come out drinking with you…”
============================
“…and so anyway, that’s the full list of twenty reasons why I think that we should go out drinking some time!” Vinyl finished. To her surprise and slight disappointment, Octavia didn’t look as excited about it as she had expected. “Oh, come on, what’s wrong with them?” Vinyl asked. “You asked for a list of twenty reasons, and I gave you them!”
“I asked for a list of twenty good reasons, Vinyl,” Octavia reminded her. “This list is just… I mean, what does ‘Cthulhu fhtagn’ mean?”
“I never wrote that!” Vinyl said, levitating the piece of paper Octavia was holding to herself. “You just can’t read my writing. That says ‘Drinking in a social environment is a great way to meet new ponies.’ How is that not a good reason?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Octavia, grinning. “Maybe it’s because I’ve got you as a friend, so I don’t really need to meet new ponies?”
Presently, Octavia was over at Vinyl’s apartment, having been invited over for dinner. It had been two weeks since Vinyl broke into Octavia’s apartment – the first time, that was. The two ponies had found themselves spending more and more time together as friends since then, and both were pleased that the spark of friendship which had ignited in the Amarezon Jungle was still blazing strongly since they had gotten back.
“Exactly!” said Vinyl excitedly. “You’ve got me as a friend, which brings me to point number five – ‘Drinking can lower inhibitions, leading to hilarious scenarios and a higher probability of making out – if not more.’”
“…Vinyl, are you trying to imply something?” Octavia asked, raising an eyebrow. “I am not into mares, you know.”
“What? No, no neither am I!” Vinyl said, holding her hooves up in defence. “I was talking about the hilarious scenarios thing – can you picture the kind of wackiness we’d get into together?”
A brief image of a burning pub filled Octavia’s imagination. “Yes… it’s that wackiness that worries me,” she said. “Whilst I do enjoy your company, Vinyl, I think I’d like to keep the shenanigans to a minimum in the future.”
“Ah, you’re no fun!” said Vinyl, grinning. She levitated a forkful of food into her mouth, and whilst still chewing, asked, “So, how is the food, anyway?”
“Very tasty, Vinyl,” Octavia replied, finishing a mouthful herself. “If there was some way in which I could trick you into cooking for me each day and night, I would certainly consider the possibility of pondering such a scheme.”’
“Wow, that’s the best compliment I’ve ever gotten!” said Vinyl as she put another piece of salad into her mouth.
Unsure of whether Vinyl was being sarcastic or not, Octavia said, “I’m being serious, Vinyl – you’re a much better cook than me, and this is really good.”
“Heh, thanks, Octavia,” said Vinyl. “And other than the cooking, what else do you think of my humble abode? I’m kinda curious, since this is your first time over.”
“It’s…” Octavia hesitated as she looked around the cramped apartment. Piles of unwashed clothes lay everywhere, which was odd as Vinyl had never worn clothes in the short time Octavia knew her. The sink was filled with messy dishes, which Octavia suspected were several days, if not weeks, old. The walls were cracked, the ceiling was leaking in a few rooms, and the carpet didn’t match the drapes. If it weren’t for Vinyl’s excellent company, Octavia would have galloped away from the apartment within minutes of entering it.
“…amazing considering the price, right?” Vinyl said a little hesitantly as she realised that Octavia was still staring around the apartment, silently taking in more and more things which she deemed to be wrong with it.
“That depends upon how much the rent is,” Octavia pointed out.
“Yeah, well get this – it’s only fifty bits a month,” said Vinyl. “How cheap is that? Okay, yeah, I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not the nicest apartment, and I can be a bit of a slob at times, but seeing as how I’m paying a tenth of what most ponies would pay for something about the same size as this, give or take a few rooms…”
“I imagine you’d certainly be saving some bits with prices like that,” Octavia agreed. “And I suppose that if somepony were to clean up here a bit more often, it would be nice enough, if a bit cramped.” She grimaced. “Celestia knows my place is overpriced for what it is.”
“Oh? How much is it, if you don’t mind my asking?” questioned Vinyl Scratch, raising an eyebrow as she carried her mostly-empty plate to the sink and threw it in without even a quick rinse.
“Seven-hundred and eighty-two bits a month,” said Octavia glumly, passing her very empty and clean plate to Vinyl. “Once again, nice meal, by the way.”
“No problem – it’s an ancient family recipe passed down from a book I found at this one guy’s house the other day and thought I’d try out,” Vinyl said cheerfully. “But ouch, that rent! How do you afford that?”
“Being a cellist pays quite well, fortunately, although between rent, food, and bills, I don’t exactly have much money for myself,” Octavia said. “And besides, what little I save usually ends up being spent maintaining the condition of my cello.”
“Well… why don’t you just move someplace smaller?” Vinyl asked as the two slowly headed to her (very messy) lounge room. “I mean, your place is really awesome – I’d love to live there – but to be honest, it does sorta look like it’s a bit big for you.”
Octavia shrugged. “Maybe it is, but I…I suppose that when I first applied for the lease I pictured myself meeting somepony else – a romantic partner, most preferably – and having a large house to offer them to move into.”
“I guess I see your logic there,” Vinyl said, “but it still seems sorta… I dunno, you haven’t found anypony you’d want to move in with you, have you? So rent is stupidly high.” She leaned back on the armchair she was sitting on as she scratched her chin. “It’s a bit of a pity – if I had somewhere nice to move into, I’d definitely go there. I’ve got enough bits saved up thanks to my super cheap rent, but as it is, I haven’t really got anywhere else to move into.”
“It certainly is a pity,” agreed Octavia. “Here you are, willing to move into a nicer place if you had one, and on the other hoof, I have my large house with too much room and high rent, needing somepony else to move into it. If only there were a solution to both of our problems.” A light clicked in Octavia’s head as she realised what she had just said. “Wait a minute… Vinyl, I just had a brilliant idea!”
“Yeah? What is it?” Vinyl asked, looking interested.
“Let’s go out for ice cream! I just got a craving for some!”
============================
“Oh my gosh! Octavia! I just had the best idea ever!” Vinyl exclaimed excitedly, almost bouncing on the spot in joy. There were a few moments of silence before she repeated herself. “I said, ‘Oh my gosh! Octavia! I just had the best idea ever!’”
“Mmmm… who is it?...Vinyl?” Octavia asked, briefly opening her eyes. She rolled over in bed to find that Vinyl had broken into her house yet again and had just woken her up at some early hour of the morning.
“Do I need to repeat myself again?” Vinyl asked, sounding excited rather than annoyed.
“Couldn’t it have waited until morning, Vinyl?” Octavia asked, yawning. “And please don’t tell me you broke another window.”
“Nah, because the last one hasn’t been repaired yet,” Vinyl said. “Like I said, I’ll pay you for that. But anyway, after you went home from the ice cream stand, I went home, and I had, like, the most brilliant idea!”
“Does it involve me going to sleep right now? Because that sounds like the most brilliant idea in Equestria at the moment.”
“So you know how you totally have barely any money because you spend it all on essentials and stuff, right?” Vinyl said, ignoring Octavia. “I was thinking about how you said you could do with a housemate and whatnot – that’d give you, what, three-hundred-odd extra bits a month?”
“Mmm…” mumbled Octavia, not really listening.
“And obviously you want somepony you like to move in, since you don’t want a crappy housemate who never pays rent or whatever moving in and just leeching off you, right? And that pony would also need to be making a decent amount of income to live here comfortably and fairly, yeah?”
“Vinyl, what do you want?” Octavia asked, her voice low due to tiredness.
“Well...why don’t I move in with you?!” Vinyl asked cheerfully. “Think about it – we get on super well, I’ve got enough money and I get gigs regularly enough that I can afford rent and stuff, and you get to save a ton of bits!”
“That… that sounds okay on the surface…” mumbled Octavia.
“And there’s so many more benefits!” Vinyl continued. “You’re a cool pony who’s like, super neat and stuff, so the place won’t be messy because of me! I can cook us meals all the time, so you get super cool food that I’m totally happy to cook for both of us! I’ll bring my alcohol, and every – say, Monday night – we can both-”
“Okay Vinyl, I get it,” Octavia said, yawning. Picking herself up from bed slightly, she said, “I’ll need to be reminded in the morning, since I’ll probably forget all of this when I wake up, but for the moment I see no problem with you moving in with me.”
“Yes!” Vinyl shouted. “You’re totally bucking awesome, Octavia! Thank you thank you thank you!” She leaned forwards and hugged Octavia tightly.
“…Okay, this is getting weird now,” Octavia said after a minute or so.
“Sorry, I had a few drinks before coming over here to celebrate,” said Vinyl as she withdrew. “Just like what we’ll be like when I move in, am I right?”
“…Let me sleep,” Octavia replied tiredly.
“Right, right…but you reckon you’ll be good for it? For me to move in?” Vinyl asked.
“Assuming that nothing disastrous happens which prevents your moving in and I don’t find any problems which I haven’t considered yet, sure,” said Octavia. “Now could I please get to sleep?”
============================
“What do you mean, my house was demolished to make way for a bypass?!” Octavia screamed at the demolishing crew a few days later. “Why wasn’t I notified?!”
“Well damn, so much for nothing disastrous happening which prevented me from moving in,” said Vinyl, staring at the wreckage. Vinyl had come over for a visit, and then the duo had gone out to a nearby café for lunch. Returning to Octavia’s, they had both been astonished – and furious, in Octavia’s case – to find a wrecking crew awkwardly standing by the ruins.
“Hey, if you don’t check your mail then that’s your own fault!” said the head of the demolishing crew. “If you’d checked your mailbox you’d have found the notice warning you of it!”
“You don’t check your mail either, Octavia?” Vinyl asked. “Yeah!” She held out a hoof for Octavia to bump, but was ignored.
“I can assure you, I received no mail regarding my house being demolished,” Octavia said, her rage smouldering. “I would show you what I received in the mail over the past few weeks but – oh, that’s right – my house was demolished!”
“Hey, don’t blame us guys for your mistake, lady,” retorted the demolishing worker. “As a matter of fact, I personally saw my boss fill out the forms allowing us to knock down number nine-six-one, Galloping Avenue. So whaddya got to say to that, huh?”
Vinyl glanced sideways at Octavia. The grey mare wasn’t reacting outwardly at all, but from what Vinyl could tell, it looked as though Octavia was biting the inside of her mouth. “You right, Octavia?”
“One-hundred and ninety-six,” Octavia hissed.
“Uh, pardon?” Vinyl asked, leaning in.
“One-hundred and ninety-six!” Octavia repeated. “This house is – was – number one-hundred and ninety-six!”
“So…you’re sayin’ we knocked down the wrong house?” the demolishing head asked, suddenly sounding less confident. Around him, the various workers were all suddenly avoiding Octavia’s eyes.
“You were supposed to knock down house number nine-hundred and sixty-one, yet you knocked down my house!” Octavia shouted. “You… you idiots! How does something like this happen?!”
“Oh, uh…” The demolishing crew’s leader pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, and squinted at it. After a moment, the workers came up close to him and he whispered something to them, too quiet for Octavia or Vinyl to hear.
“How are you feeling, Octavia?” asked Vinyl, looking concerned for her friend.
“There had better be a good reason for this,” growled Octavia.
“Um…long story short… we screwed up and read the address upside-down,” said the leader of the demolishing crew awkwardly as the workers backed away from him. “But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be compensated by, um, the local council… or something.”
“I’ll murder you. I’ll murder you all!” Octavia shouted, waving a hoof furiously.
“Come on, Octy, let’s go round to my place,” Vinyl said, first trying to push Octavia along and when that failed, levitating her. “We’ll… I dunno, write an angry letter or something. These guys obviously don’t know anything.”
“I hate being called Octy,” growled Octavia.
============================
“So…you ready?” Vinyl asked Octavia. Octavia nodded. “Awesome. One…two…three…lift!”
Together, the Earth pony and the unicorn lifted the cardboard box filled with some of Vinyl’s possessions – Vinyl with her magic, Octavia with a hoof, leaving her awkwardly walking behind Vinyl. It had been a few weeks since the series of contrived coincidences which had led to Octavia’s house being destroyed, and in that time the two had searched for a new place to live as soon as it became apparent that Vinyl’s apartment was too small for the two of them to live in together. A few days ago the two ponies had found a new house, and after applying for it and receiving approval, they had started to move in.
“Phew! Thanks for that, Octavia,” said Vinyl appreciatively a few minutes later as they dropped the box into a room. In response, Octavia merely winced and shook her hoof around to get the blood circulating again. “Good thing there’s only another five to go, right?”
“Five more like that? What are you keeping in these boxes that makes them so heavy anyway?” Octavia asked, giving the box on the floor a small poke.
“Y’know, just some stuff. Records, equipment, stuff like that,” said Vinyl, grinning.
“I should have guessed. DJs,” said Octavia, rolling her eyes jokingly.
“Hey, screw you!” said Vinyl aggressively. “Least I’m not as snooty as you classical types!”
“Well at least we’re not as messy and rough as you ponies with your ‘modern’ music,” Octavia replied swiftly. There was a moment of pause as the two mares stared at each other angrily. Then a moment later they both burst out laughing.
“Oh man, we’re such idiots,” said Vinyl, still laughing.
“Vinyl Scratch, if I ever live to be one hundred, I swear that I will never understand you,” said Octavia, also laughing slightly. “Or the strange sense of humour that we’ve somehow developed.”
“So you don’t understand me, huh?” Vinyl asked, pretending to get defensive. “Well in that case, get out of my room!”
“…Why the hay is this suddenly your room?” Octavia asked. “During the house inspection, I said that if we hypothetically moved in, I wanted it!”
“Because it’s the biggest, and I need the space for my music stuff!” Vinyl explained cheerfully. “And anyway, you were talking about a hypothetical situation. This is the real world now, so it totally doesn’t count that you wanted it.”
Octavia frowned. “That’s hardly fair, Vinyl. If you wanted it, you should have mentioned so during the house inspection. Or at the very least brought it up with me prior to now.”
“Hey, why do you think I was dumping all of these boxes in here? I was marking my territory!”
“…You probably could have used a better choice of words there, you know,” said Octavia, shaking her head slightly. “And that still doesn’t address the point that you never even mentioned it to me.”
“In my defence, I was sorta busy during the inspection,” Vinyl said. Octavia raised an eyebrow.
“Meaning? I did notice that you disappeared at one point, come to think of it,” she commented.
“Meaning that I was checking out the bathroom and how big the window is,” Vinyl explained. “What?!” she asked as Octavia gave her a look. “You think I can be bothered spending forever finding my keys and opening a door when it’s so much easier to just climb in through the window?”
“…Whatever,” said Octavia, rolling her eyes. “None of this solves the problem of who gets this room.”
“Paper, scissors, rock for it?” suggested Vinyl.
“How?” pointed out Octavia. “And besides, that’s hardly fair… roll a d20 for it?”
“A what?”
“Never mind,” said Octavia, shaking her head. Silence fell between the two mares, neither able to find a solution to their problem.
“Well, looks like the room will just have to stay mine!” Vinyl said, suddenly switching to a grin as she said so. “Seeing as, y’know, how I have a few boxes in here already.”
“Really, Vinyl? Really?” Octavia asked, exasperated. “That’s just unfair, seeing as how I only found out that you were claiming this room for yours a minute ago. And besides, I’d be willing to bet that if I were to have more boxes in here than you, you wouldn’t be giving this room up to me.”
“Well yeah, I’d totally agree to that,” Vinyl said seriously. “The art of box-room-claiming…wait… room-box-claiming…? Whatever. Claiming rooms by throwing boxes in them is a time-honoured tradition, and really important probably!”
“Since when?” Octavia asked, deadpan.
“Since I decided that it’s the best chance I’ve got of getting this room,” Vinyl explained.
“…Wait, so you’re serious? If I had more boxes in here than you do then I’d get it?”
“So long as you’d be cool with me getting it if I had more boxes in it, yeah, I would be,” Vinyl said.
“Oh, good,” said Octavia. For a few moments the two mares stared at each other, the same thought going through the head of each. Then, at the same time, the two galloped out the door and to the front of the house, where the two had lazily dropped the boxes containing their personal belongings after they had arrived an hour ago.
“Dammit Octavia, you’re not getting that room!” said Vinyl as she strained to levitate one of her boxes. “I’ve already got some stuff in there, so you’re already behind! You might as well give up now!”
“It’s not over yet, Vinyl!” said Octavia, somehow picking up two boxes at the same time. Although Vinyl was ahead of her in the impromptu challenge, Octavia had packed more neatly and with more care, and so her boxes were lighter and easier to move. By comparison, Vinyl’s heavy boxes required more effort and precision to move, in addition to straining Vinyl more.
For the next ten or so minutes, the two mares rushed back and forth between their belongings and the desired room, barely letting up as they continued to taunt and tease one another along the way. However, it wasn’t long before it became apparent who had won the competition, and by the time the two mares had gotten all of their belongings into the room, it was proven true.
“Ha! You said so, Vinyl Scratch! You said that if I got more boxes in here than you then I’d get the room, and I did!” Octavia cheered.
Vinyl scowled. “I wouldn’t have said that if I’d realised you had more boxes,” she muttered. “This competition was rigged from the start!”
Octavia giggled. “Well maybe you should have thought that through from the start,” she said. “Still, going by your exact words, it looks like this is my room.”
“If I hadn’t put so much crap into my boxes I would have won,” Vinyl said. “And besides, my stuff was too heavy – now my damn horn is sore.”
“Would you like me to kiss it better?” Octavia asked, half-jokingly, half-serious.
“Bit of an intimate act for our first night in the new house, don’t you think?” Vinyl asked, grinning. It took Octavia a moment to realise what Vinyl was implying before she blushed.
“…I hate you sometimes,” she said, deadpan.
“Well damn, looks like I’ll have to use the famous Vinyl Scratch charm on you then,” said Vinyl, still teasing. When she saw that Octavia wasn’t rising to the bait this time, she changed topic. “Well… after all of that, all that I’ve ended up with is a ton of heavy boxes in a room that isn’t mine, and I can’t be bothered moving them now. Any idea what you’re gonna do now?”
“Well, what I was thinking,” began Octavia, “was that we’re all alone, yes?”
“Yeah.”
“So with nopony around to hear us in our new house, we could…you know…” Octavia gave a look that clearly said Do I really have to spell it out?
“...Are you saying what I think you are?” Vinyl asked, suddenly feeling nervous.
“Yes, I am,” said Octavia. “Vinyl Scratch… would you do me the honour…”
“No need to sound so formal, Octy!” laughed Vinyl. Octavia’s face twitched briefly at the nickname.
“Fine then, if you insist. Hey Vinyl, want to play music together?”
“It’d be my pleasure, Octavia,” said Vinyl, grinning broadly.
THE END