Paradiso

by Syvvak


Chapter 12

Paradiso

Chapter 12

Written by

Syvvak

Story Concept by

Lynked

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        The sky above Octavia was perfect: a soft-blue canvas speckled with white. She saw two unidentifiable birds flitting around a bush, their song bringing a smile to her lips. The grass felt smooth beneath her and a gentle breeze ruffled her coat, whispering sweet nothings into her ears as it passed.
        Octavia couldn't help but smile. The day was great: birds were chirping, the sun was shining, she had recently found love, and foals were playing and laughing. Octavia sat up, inhaling deeply to take in the scents on the wind. After a long, steady exhale, she looked down to the playground at the foot of her hill.
        She saw a green pegasus fly up to catch a Frisbee thrown by a white unicorn, who laughed as a bird swooped in to steal the toy. A shout drew Octavia's attention to a table where five other foals sat. Well, four sat. The fifth was standing on the table shouting emphatically. A gust of wind set the pony's crystalline-blue mane and purple cape whipping dramatically.
        Octavia couldn't suppress a laugh when the exuberant pony was unbalanced by the bird with the Frisbee, causing her to shriek and cover her head. After a few moments, she looked up. Seeing the danger was passed, she straightened the starry hat on her head, used her magic to pick up a piece of cardboard and unfold it in front of a smiling unicorn wearing a medieval helmet, and returned to her seat.
        Despite all the noise, the laughter and shouts of foals at play mixing with the gentle melody of nature, everything fell dead on Octavia's ears when her eyes fell on the slide. More precisely, when her eyes fell on the little grey filly under the slide. Though she was so far away, Octavia knew the filly was holding onto a stuffed dog, crying.
        Octavia heard a shout and she turned to see most of the foals running towards a smiling pegasus, saying goodbye to the friends who were staying as they went. She turned back to the slide, but only saw the filly's silver tail as she walked away. Standing up, she started to run, having to catch up to the filly, but she tripped after passing the slide.
        As she fell, she looked to see what she tripped over and gasped, tears welling up in her eyes: she had tripped over the filly's stuffed dog.

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        "Tavi. Tavi. Tavi. Tavi. Taaaavi. Octavia. Octavia... Oc-tavia, Oc-tavia, you are sleeping so sweetly. But I am hungry, so I will wake thee, even though you may kill me." Vinyl gave a gasp of... inspiration?
        That thought made Octavia sigh. Realizing she wouldn't be getting back to sleep, she rolled over as Vinyl began clearing her throat as though preparing to give a speech. In a reflex-driven attempt of prevention, she quickly closed the few inches of empty space between them and pressed her lips to Vinyl's.
        The sudden movement from her thought-to-be-sleeping marefriend startled Vinyl, causing her to lean backwards with a gasp of surprise...
        ..and fall to the floor with a grunt of pain.
        She laid there with a groan of embarrassment as Octavia laughed.
        "I must apologize, Dear," Octavia said in fits and starts, unable to control her laughter, "for I only meant to keep you from singing another verse."
        Vinyl harrumphed as she rose. She walked to her beanbag and plopped down, filling the room with a noticeable 'fwoosh'. She just sat there, scowling at the evil earth pony she was kind enough to let sleep in her bed.
        "Can we get breakfast now that you're up?" Vinyl asked innocently, the scowl fading from her face.
        "Why did you wake me up to eat breakfast?" Vinyl opened her mouth to speak, but Octavia cut her off with "If you turn that into an innuendo, you'd better hope you can outrun me."
        "Well I never!" Vinyl shouted, trying to put on an insulted expression, but she failed and started laughing. After regaining her composure, she smiled. "I can't eat your birthday breakfast on my own. That would just be rude, even by my standards. Which I have."
        Octavia sat on the bed, unmoving. After a few moments, when Vinyl started to fidget under her unblinking stare, she rose. "Fine. Let me get around."
        As she walked to the bedroom door, Vinyl leapt from her seat to engulf Octavia in a hug. "Happy birthday, Octavia."
        "Thank you," Octavia said, smiling as the unicorn let go and went back to the bed, humming.

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        “So you’re saying that really expensive coffee is fed to animals then pulled out of their poop?” Vinyl repeated sceptically as she kicked a pebble down the sidewalk, her hunger sated by pancakes and coffee.
        “Yes. Fancy told me about it. He said some stallion from some place I don’t remember came to him asking for a partnership. Fancy hasn’t decided yet, but the fellow gave him a sample and he shared it with Fleur and I. I thought it was rather delicious.” Octavia closed her eyes and pursed her lips, preparing for Vinyl’s childish outburst.
        “Well, I don’t see how it would be much different than how they do it normally. It all gets covered in stuff we don’t want to eat and washed, so I don’t think it would be much different.” Vinyl sighed as her pebble fell down a drain. “Besides, there would have to be a bunch of tests they would have to do to make sure it would be safe for ponies to drink, so I wouldn’t care. I eat plenty of stuff I shouldn’t, so eh.”
        “Woah.” Octavia stood in awe, her mind no longer able to control her hooves.
        “Hmm?” Vinyl turned around.
        “I never expected you to use such a reasonable explanation. I assumed you would mock me for liking ‘crappuccino’.”
        Vinyl just chuckled and resumed walking back to her parent’s house. “Octavia. When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me. I am a mature mare and would never mock somepony for because of something they like.”
        “I’ll… just let you have this one, Dear,” Octavia said with a smirk.
        “How very mature of you.” Vinyl stepped up to the door and opened it with her magic, saying “Ladies first.”
        Octavia kissed Vinyl on the forehead and said “And here I was told chivalry was dead” as she entered the house.
        “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!”
        A sudden influx of light blinded the poor earth pony. When her vision finally returned, Octavia saw the living room filled with smiling ponies, friends of Vinyl’s she had met the day before. A banner with ‘Happy Birthday, Octavia!’ written in crayon was hung on the door to the kitchen, from where Sonata came barrelling towards the stunned mare.
        “Surprise,” she heard whispered from behind her as she was gently prodded forward into the leaping grasp of Sonata.

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