Vinyl made her way into her modestly sized apartment, a large smile on her face.
That smile was quickly replaced by a frown. She gagged as she smelled something horrible coming from the kitchen.
That could only mean one thing.
Vinyl dashed into the kitchen, finding Octavia standing by the small table, placing two bowls of some kind of murky, green food substance on it.
"Octavia! What the hay are you doing here, in my appartment using my kitchen which you've been strictly forbidden from using?"
“Oh, come now, Vinyl. It’s late and I assumed you’d be hungry, so I decided to make us something to eat!” Octavia said, beaming.
“I appreciate the gesture, but we both know that you failed cooking class in school… multiple times. I trusted you to not abuse the privilege of having a copy of my house key.”
In response, Vinyl was greeted with Octavia’s eyes widening and lips curled into a pout that could break a changeling’s heart. She was going to have to eat Octavia’s cooking, or she wouldn’t hear the end of it.
“Fine,” she said, rolling her eyes and sitting down at the table across from Octavia, who giddily clapped her hooves.
Vinyl just poked at the gooey, green substance in front of her. If she didn’t know any better, she could’ve sworn something in it was growling at her.
“C’mon, Vinyl, it won’t bite,” Octavia said.
“Well that’s fair, I suppose, because I don’t plan on biting it, either.” As if on cue, a bubble rose to the surface with an unnerving pop. “Whatever this is…”
“It’s vegetable soup with protein enhancing nutrients. Celestia knows that you don’t get proper nutrition from eating out all of the time after your shows.”
“Hey, pizza and waffles haven’t wronged me, yet.”
After taking a slow, cautious bite, Vinyl nearly puked as the substance wormed its way down her throat. “Ugh! Maybe if nutritious foods didn’t try to kill me I would eat them more often.”
Octavia merely looked at Vinyl with an unamused expression, and daintily took a bite of her creation: a bite that never reached her stomach, and instead was immediately spat onto the floor.
“You wanna order pizza?” Octavia asked with a sheepish look.
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
Twenty minutes later, they were sitting on the couch, enjoying pineapple pizza and watching TV.
"You see, Octavia, we've got our fruit, veggies, grains, dairy—the entire food pyramid in one convenient slice of awesomeness," Vinyl said, shoveling her most recent slice down her throat.
Octavia took a dainty sip of her soda before stuffing a hoof-full of pizza into her mouth. "Pass the ranch, please."
Vinyl levitated the packet of ranch to her friend. “There you go. It’s—oh my gosh!”
The ranch packet that Octavia was hungrily waiting for suddenly exploded into her face as Vinyl jumped from her seat with a huge grin.
"Octavia, look which movie is coming on!" Vinyl said, pointing a hoof at the screen. "It's 'Chainsaw Vixens of the 4th Dimension'. It is possibly the most horrible gorefest movie ever created in the history of, well… ever!"
Octavia wiped the ranch off of her face and stuck her tongue out, feigning a gag. "Vinyl, please. You know how I feel about those terrible movies. It's nothing but overly sexualized mares engaging in brazen loose conduct and acts of fake, grotesque violence."
"I know, right! Isn't it great?" Vinyl said, laughing with a cute smile.
"Uh, no, not exactly.”
Frowning, Vinyl let out an annoyed sigh. "Fine, be that way. Too bad Spike isn't here. I bet that he'd get a kick out of watching it."
"Speaking of which, how did Spike like Manehatten? From what I can tell, most ponies from around here don't delve into the seedy parts of Equestria very often, much less someone in the royal family. I was actually rather worried something may have happened to you two when you didn't return last night."
Vinyl's eyes shot open. A bead of sweat ran down her brow. "It… you know, it was alright... nothing too big went down. It just got late, that's all."
Octavia looked Vinyl up and down, scrutinizing her face—which, coincidentally, was now heating up with a furious blush and displaying a nervous smile.
"Alright, Vinyl. Spill the beans. What went wrong and how much trouble are you two in?"
Vinyl gulped in a breath of air. "Nothing! Nothing went wrong."
"Did you guys do any illegal drugs?"
"No, it's just-"
"Did you steal waffles... again?!"
"No, but—"
"Oh my gosh, Vinyl. Please tell me you didn’t—”
"No!" Vinyl screamed, thrusting her hoof over her friends' mouth. "Not that it's any of your business, but Spike got super drunk at a party and almost got involved with a bunch of mares."
"Vinyl! You let Spike go to a party like that alone?" Octavia said, mouth agape.
"I didn't know he was at the party! I had asked him to meet me at the waffle place one street over," she stood up and started pacing the room in front of the couch. "How was I supposed to know someone could get into that much trouble in only a few blocks of walking distance?"
"Vinyl, that's not the point! Do you realize what could've happened if he had gotten hurt, or even if he had gotten in trouble with the law? Your career would be out the window!" Octavia threw her hooves up.
"My career? Honestly, I was more concerned about him," Vinyl replied. "But besides that, I'm not his foalsitter and he can make his own choices. I'm not responsible for him like that."
"I suppose that's true, but as his employer, you do carry responsibility for your assistant. And abusing responsibility could land you back in my living room if taken lightly, and I'm fairly certain neither of us want that."
"Hah, got that right," Vinyl responded, rolling her eyes. "I love ya, Tavi, but I can only take so much structure and order in my home before I go crazy."
"Yes, and I can only deal with so much pulsating bass before I rip my mane out. I don't understand how anyone could enjoy that 'hardcore, screamo, dubstep' nonsense anyway."
Vinyl shook her head in disapproval. "You see, Octavia this is why I'm playing sold out shows to the masses while you’re selling cello strings to band class students. And besides, plenty of ponies like that genre of music. Spike, for one, thinks it's awesome, and it’s started several awesome conversations between us."
“Uh-huh… whatever you say. Anyway, you two sure seem to be getting along awfully well,” Octavia said, winking at Vinyl.
“Yeah! He’s super cool and… wait a second, are you implying something?” Vinyl asked.
“Goodness, Vinyl, I’m just teasing you. Carry on with what you were saying.”
Vinyl rolled her eyes and jumped back into her interrupted statement. “I was just saying that he’s really cool and seems to be a decent friend. Can’t hold his liquor, apparently, but still really fun. And besides, well, we seem to have a lot in common. Outside of music, I mean.”
“Like what?”
“Well, he doesn’t have the best family life, for one. Like, he didn’t even get to know his parents… Not even I had it that bad,” she said, sinking into the couch once more.
Octavia struggled to find the right words. “Oh, well… I’m sorry, dear.”
“I don’t feel sorry for me, I feel sorry for him! Yet, he just powered his way through it. That’s pretty amazing.”
“How did he react to you telling him about your family?” Octavia questioned.
“Well, to be honest, I didn’t… It didn’t seem like something I needed to bring up, ya know?” Vinyl replied.
"Well you should tell him anyway, Vinyl. It'd make for an excellent conversation starter, and maybe it would help you to talk about it. Especially considering he's gone through similar difficulties, at least from what it sounds like."
Vinyl let out a sigh. "Yeah, I guess. I suppose it would make for an interesting topic at dinner this Wednesday."
"Dinner?"
"Oh yeah, I didn't tell you. Me and him are going to dinner this week. We figured it would be a nice change of pace to get out for a little while. You know, when it’s not work related and we can actually have some fun."
"Sounds like it'd be fun," Octavia said with a sly wink and a nudge. "Am I correct in assuming that this is a little more than just a 'just friends' sort of date?"
"No!" Vinyl said, her face turning red. "Well, maybe... I guess. Possibly. I mean, yeah... I think he may be starting to like me."
Octavia giggled and grinned widely. "And... How do you feel about him?"
"I don't know," she said, looking down at her hooves."On one hoof, he's a super cool guy, and its nice to have somepony like me who's not a total jerk. On the other, though, I've only known him for a little while, and I really don't want to rush things. Especially not after what happened before."
"You mean with... him?" Octavia asked, the last word dripping with disgust.
"Yeah," Vinyl said, frowning. "I'd really prefer to avoid something like that happening again."
"Understandable."
"Yeah, but that's not to say I don't like Spike. I just wanna really get to know him more outside of work and stuff first."
"Very mature reasoning, Vinyl. I'm actually surprised to hear something like that from you," Octavia said, snorting a small laugh.
"Yeah, well, don't get used to it!" Vinyl laughed. "I'm only acting like this because I'm tired and not myself."
The two shared a laugh together, unable to keep from smiling, before Octavia finally broke the silence.
"But, by all accounts, I approve. He seems nice, and it would be convenient for you to be with somepony you work with."
"I can always count on you to be the logical one, can't I?" Vinyl said, smiling.
"Yes, well, its my job to keep you on the right track. It has been since we met, so don't forget it," she said.
"Trust me, I don't think that I could even if I wanted to."
With a final grin, Octavia made her way to the door. "Well, Vinyl, it was nice getting to talk like that. It’s been ages."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. Work and stuff... it’s so stupid. All it does is take up our time. How obnoxious!"
"I know, it’s quite rude," Octavia replied. "Anyhow, I should be heading back home. Have a good night, Vinyl. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Goodnight, Octy," Vinyl replied, waving a hoof as the front door closed behind her friend.
Vinyl slouched back into her comfy couch seat, and turned her attention back to the movie on TV just in time to see a cheerleader's head torn off by an alien creature wielding a chainsaw.
"Ha! What a ditz. You're supposed to run away from bloodthirsty murderous creatures, not scream and try to look helpless," Vinyl said, the TV being her only audience to her vocal disapproval.
After a few more minutes of embarrassingly bad movie violence, Vinyl clicked it off with her magic and let out a deep sigh.
"Hmph, its no fun watching a bad movie by yourself."
She looked at the mess of pizza boxes and soda cans that covered her living room and shrugged. "Meh, I'll clean it up tomorrow."
She walked back to her small bedroom and leapt onto the lumpy mattress. She shifted her head onto her pillow, which for some reason was always hot no matter which side she flipped it to. Having finally given up on finding a comfortable position, she covered herself with her blanket and let her mind wander.
Okay, so I have to pay rent and equipment fees tomorrow, then I have plans with Spike on Wednesday, then I have to call the record people to see about doing... something I can't remember. Gosh, if only Spike could organise my personal life, too.
Her mind floated around to the various stresses she was dealing with, but her mind kept travelling back to Spike. He had the strange ability to make her happy and forget about other things, which at the moment was a very good thing.
I should totally ask Spike if he likes to watch bad movies.
She chuckled to herself, thinking about their upcoming date. It was either going to be a lot of fun, or awkward beyond belief. Either way, she was looking forward to spending time with her new friend—her friend who seemed to be occupying most of her thoughts recently. Her friend who seemed to make her heart beat a little faster whenever she was with him. Her friend who asked her on a date that she more than happily agreed to attend.
Her friend who may be becoming something more than just her friend.