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// 63 Power by palaikai 
// Story: Rhythm and Harmony: The Octascratch Prompt Collab 
// by lyra_lover777 
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Power by palaikai



All Octavia wanted to do was rehearse; the performance was only a couple of days away now, and she wanted to be at her absolute best. And it wasn't because she wanted to impress a bunch of moronic Canterlot snobs who couldn't tell the difference between a violin and a viola, but for her own sense of self-satisfaction. Making music was more than just a talent, it was the very core of her existence.
It was understood by all within the household that, when she was practicing, the basement studio was off-limits to all; even if Ponyville should come under attack by a shape-shifting demonic entity from beyond the ninth dimension, NO PONY WAS TO DISTURB THE SANCTITY OF HER LAIR. True, such things were few and far between – and mostly handled by the Elements of Harmony – but it held fast as a general rule for domestic bliss.
The desk in front of her, bathed in the relaxing beige glow of a work-lamp, was strewn with white; sheet music that had been annotated, scribbled, scrawled, balled-up, tossed, unfurled … all sorts of abuse had been visited upon the poor, innocent sheaves of paper, but they were necessary casualties in Octavia's war against mediocrity. She would accept nothing less than her best, even if it meant pushing her tired, tense body through one more sleepless night.
	One more night without warmth and comfort. One more night without a tangle of limbs, working up a sweat, a soft gasp puncturing the silent darkness ...
Listlessly, the greyish earth pony strummed the bow against the strings of her cello. “No,” she said barely a moment later, hefting a sigh of irritation skywards. All of her music as of late had been sounding … same-y. She needed something new, something unexpected. She hastily made a few alterations. A diminished fifth here, a major third there, and soon Octavia was playing something with a bit more life to it.
A creaking noise cut through her sensitive ears, making her wince. Somepony had just opened the door to her practice chamber. Octavia decided not to turn around; logically, she knew that there was only one pony in all of Equestria who could be so brazen as to ignore repeated warnings – repeated threats of grevious bodily harm inflicted with a ten kilogram cello case – so she felt no need to actually confirm her suspicions. Instead, Octavia decided to silently stew. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
The battle was already over, anyway. As soon as you gave your opponent the power to make you mad, you'd already lost. It was just a question of how you chose to accept defeat. You could either be graceful, or you could go down fighting.
A white unicorn with a mane of wild blue hair sat opposite her, appraising Octavia with a sly grin. The earth pony sensed that Vinyl's eyes were going to be laden with mischief, but it was impossible to tell for certain with her trademark sunglasses in place.
Operation: Annoy Octavia was clearly a go.
Resting her head on a hoof, Vinyl was content to watch her marefriend at work; Octavia still wasn't acknowledging her existence, instead she continued to pluck tunelessly and occasionally make small corrections to her notes. In fact, if Vinyl hadn't known better, she would've assumed that Octavia was doing a pretty good job of pretending that she wasn't there at all.
Poke.
The gesture is nothing more than a light tap with the pointed tip of her hoof, but it provoked no reaction whatsoever from Octavia. Vinyl furrowed her brow in confusion. Maybe I was TOO gentle?
POKE.
This time, the blow was enough to compress the soft, yielding flesh of Octavia's shoulder. There was no way she didn't feel that one.
Still no response. Maybe she's in The Zone and won't do anything no matter WHAT I do to her?
A series of pokes that became too legion to number later, and still nothing from Octavia, Vinyl began to pout. The attention that she was failing to get from the earth pony was only serving to fuel her desire to elicit some type of reaction form her. Clenching her jaw, her foreleg snaked out until the flat of her hoof was pressed against Octavia's cheek.
“What?” demanded Octavia sternly, turning to face Vinyl with an expression of anger masking her normally beautiful, classically elegant features. Her eyes were narrowed and dangerous, and she clutched the bow as if wondering where best to deploy it against Vinyl's body to cause maximum damage.
“Nothing,” Vinyl replied, the unicorn maintaining a steadfast calm under the circumstances. She tilted her sunglasses slightly so that Octavia could get a good look at the humour in her eyes. “Just wanted to make sure you were still alive in there, that's all.”
Her eyebrow twitching slightly, Octavia returned to her work. There were very few things in Equestria that could get under her skin in this way, but Vinyl Scratch was one of them. She often found herself torn between wanting to smack her upside the head for her boorish mannerims and ravaging her in a senseless, passionate fury because she was just so damned sexy.
“Have you ever thought about playing a smaller instrument?” asked Vinyl, an edge of light flirtation creeping into her tone as her eyes widened suggestively. “Something a bit more portable, perhaps? I mean, lugging that big, ol' case around with you everywhere you go has got to get pretty tiring.”
“At the moment,” Octavia said, forcing a calmness into her voice that she wasn't really feeling, “all I'm thinking about is how much of a mess it would be if I murdered you in cold blood right now.”
“That's not very nice,” replied the unicorn with a smirk tugging at the corner of her muzzle. Octavia's so cute when she gets nasty. Must be why I love winding her up so much.
Octavia shot her a look that was a mixture of irritation and pleading.
“All right, all right,” Vinyl finally said after a moment's hesitation, “I get it. You're working. You don't want to be bothered. I'll  go.” She finished her little spiel with a grin so wide that you could practically hear the squee.
“Thank you,” the earth pony said quietly, releasing a breath she didn't even realise she was holding.
Vinyl waited. Waited for the glassy-eyed focus to return to Octavia's mien. Now. She poked her in the cheek and this time the reaction was instantaneous. Octavia turned, her lips parted to offer some barb, and Vinyl pressed her muzzle against hers, letting her forelegs envelope the cellist's sinewy, sensual waist.
“Mmff,” Octavia said protestingly, feeling something squishy and warm enter her mouth, too stunned to either resist the kiss or return it. Vinyl finally pulled away, though a thin trail of saliva connected their mouths still. “What-?”
“What? You thought I was gonna leave without getting a kiss?” Vinyl got on to all four hooves and walked smartly off with a slight shake of her tail to further fluster her marefriend. “See you later.”
With Vinyl gone for good, Octavia got back to work … only to find that she could no longer concentrate. “Damn her,” she said under her breath and stormed out of the room in order to find the unicorn for some … payback.