//------------------------------// // Hung Up // Story: I Love You More // by Ave Celestia //------------------------------// Octavia's head turned at the faintest sound of Vinyl's approach. The combs in her mane sparkled in the candle-light and her bright, liquid eyes shone with happiness when she saw Vinyl. She stood as Vinyl approached. "Vinyl, love!" "Hey. Hi." Vinyl smiled, embarrassed. She didn't really know what to do at a fancy dinner at all. The table had chairs, not cushions, like all fancy places. Octavia had been sitting in a chair so Vinyl figured pulling out her own chair and sitting down on it seemed like a good start. So she did. Octavia stayed standing as Vinyl seated herself, watching every move that she made. Vinyl got herself settled. The small wrought-iron couples table table had a violet tablecloth on it, in the center of which was a little orange flame in the red glass shield. Vinyl carefully placed her folded glasses on the table and looked up into Octavia's eyes. Octavia still hadn't sat back down. She kept standing, watching Vinyl with shining eyes and that little secret smile on her face. Vinyl blushed. "Heh, I know I'm pretty irresistible but maybe you think you're overdoing it?" Octavia didn't stop. Vinyl's heart raced and she blushed harder and looked away. "H-hey, don't stare so much or you'll wear me out." Her hooves were shaking. Octavia seemed to drift back to reality, fluttering her lashes as she did so. "Oh! Vinyl, darling, you just looked so entrancing I couldn't take my eyes from you and I'm afraid I quite lost myself." She carefully sat back down, gracefully smoothing her dress as she did so. I'm not wearing anything to dress up and how could I be so dumb or inconsiderate or whatever I am but you... "You look" hot like burning magma "very nice tonight." Octavia blushed deeply, visible even through her dark coat. She looked down at the table. "Th-thank you, Vinyl. I tried to make myself look pretty for you tonight." So sweet... "Yeah, I guess it's kind of a big deal, dating a DJ." Vinyl couldn't believe she had just said that. "Oh, it's not that you're a DJ, it's-" She paused. "It's... well..." Octavia trailed off again, still blushing. She looked down. Then she bit her lip and sneaked a quick glance up at Vinyl, making Vinyl's heart flip inside her chest. Oh my stars and moon and sun she is so hot when she does that lip-bite thing... They stared at each other for a moment, neither of them knowing quite what to say, until they both laughed. Vinyl felt... good being around Octavia, just looking at her, being looked at by her. Vinyl's hooves were shaking so hard she had to press them together to keep it from being embarrassingly obvious and Vinyl struggled to keep herself together. I really, really, really like this filly... but I can't go too fast. I don't wanna screw this up. I CAN'T! "So, do you wanna, you know-" Vinyl half-turned, gesturing in the general direction of where she expected servers would come from. "Oh, that's okay, Vinyl. I've already ordered. Octavia sat up straight and raised a hoof. Vinyl blinked and a half dozen waiters materialized from nowhere and moved around the table in a silent fury of action. When they withdrew and Vinyl blinked again, both Vinyl and Octavia had a plate, set of silverware, and a glass of red wine. A small basket of bread was on the table, crowded next to a plate of spaghetti. She did this for me. "You worked this out with the staff beforehoof I see..." "I wanted to make sure this date was perfect." She did this all for me, all of it. "Well, thanks. I... really appreciate it." Stay cool, stay- Vinyl noticed something. The end of a piece of spaghetti dangled off of the plate on her side. She didn't... Vinyl leaned over to see on Octavia's side. A corresponding loose end of spaghetti hung there, too. Oh... Vinyl looked up and Octavia fluttered her lashes innocently. Oh my gosh that is so cute! Vinyl couldn't keep a grin from her face. There was a pause. Vinyl fell into her thoughts. This is just too special. Nopony's ever done all this sort of thing for me. Nopony. Never. It's just... do the princesses get treated like this all the time? Is this what it's like to be so completely beloved? Octavia broke a piece of bread off and popped it into her mouth. Vinyl glanced up. Octavia was watching her. And when Octavia saw that Vinyl was watching her back, she broke into a smile around the piece of bread she was chewing. Octavia swallowed carefully and tried to hide her smile behind her hoof. Vinyl was kind of hungry so she turned her attention to this dinner. This is a date and it's so great just being with her but we're supposed to actually eat, too, right? Okay, so Octavia ate a piece of bread just now. Does that mean I'm supposed to eat bread first? There are only three things on this table... is there an order to food? Agh, I'm gonna screw up just eating somehow anyway, I don't know the manners you're supposed to use here. Whatever. Vinyl used her magic to lift a fork and spoon and spun a spoonful of spaghetti onto her plate. It looked good. "One of the reasons I like this restaurant is that you can see Castle Canterlot from the windows, especially from this table." Octavia pointed through the archway window next to them. Out the stone arch and through an opening in the winding flowers, Castle Canterlot was clearly visible against the late evening sky. As Vinyl and Octavia watched, twilight ended and night officially fell and the moon rose from the horizon to turn the spires of Castle Canterlot into a black silhouette across its pale surface. The stars unrolled themselves like a blanket around the moon, carpeting the night sky in twinkling light. "I never get tired to watching night fall, do you? It gives me a shiver and a chill. The dark." Most of Vinyl's work took place at night so about half the time she was too busy sleeping or preparing to watch the transition. "It's real special, I guess." Octavia popped another piece of bread into her mouth, she chewed meditatively. "Did you know that Canterlot Canterlot wasn't always the capital of Equestria?" Vinyl shook her head. "No." "Canterlot used only to be a research location, an academic's retreat. They say Mount Canter is particularly magical because of large crystal deposits beneath its surface. Have you noticed anything with your unicorn magic?" "Not really, no. I guess I've been out on tour but never felt different from not being on mountain." Octavia nodded. "Nor have I. I think the magical different only only present at high levels of magic use..." She trailed off for a moment, lost in gazing at Vinyl, before continuing. "Ah, some ponies think that the Castle of the Two Sisters near Ponyville was the original capital of Equestria but that was just one of the imperial retreats, one of the Sisters' vacation palaces long ago, before it was overrun." Octavia carefully took up her glass of wine. "Wow, you sure know a lot." She's so smart! Octavia smiled into her sip of wine. "Not at all, really. Just a bit of common history." "No, really, I didn't know any of that. Ponyville is that town where Princess Luna came back from, right?" "The Return actually took place right in the Castle of the Two Sisters itself." "Oh." "It's mostly a forgotten site, due to the Everfree Forest surrounding it, making archaeological expeditions difficult, despite it being so close to Canterlot. You can even see the wild trees of the forest from the highest points on the mountain." "What's the Everfree Forest?" Octavia's brow twitched up. "Oh, it's a, um, forest which is, well, essentially under a 'curse.' It's perpetually dark and has an ambient magic-dampening field. The magic of Celestia's sun's light and of the wind and of the earth are all absorbed into a large, underground root network or pushed outwards into the immediate environs. Things that consume the foliage within the forest grow... strange, inheriting the curse. There are many rare species of animals and plants which live only there or in places like it, but it's the only such area in Equestria proper. There are other such sites in different parts of the world if I am not mistaken. It's an alchemical treasurehouse, or so I'm told." Vinyl had put down her fork and was just gazing at Octavia. I wonder what else she knows? "It's not all that well-known because the crown has never approved any one of the Royal Society's grant applications for study in that area, not in the entire history of the Society. Princess Celestia has never explicitly forbidden study or travel into the Everfree, but she has never encouraged it. And for Her, that is enough. The Princess rules as much through inaction as well as action. Video et taceo, as I believe she once put it. And so it is as a result of this that the area has been largely forgotten." Octavia paused to take a sip of her wine. Vinyl had long since stopped actually hearing Octavia and just listened to the sound of her words, watching her lips move. Octavia noticed Vinyl's stare and she smiled into her wine again, quickly setting her glass down to raise a hoof and hide her sudden giggles. "What is it?" Vinyl said nothing. You're so beautiful. "You're just" perfect "so great." Octavia's eyes nervously darted down to the table. "It took me so much time to work up the nerve to ask you out, Vinyl! I'm usually much more... shy. Less bold about... expressing my feelings." She glanced up at Vinyl with an uncertain smile. "I can't imagine it." Vinyl searched Octavia's face from her glossy black hair to her dark lashes and her lips and nose and pink, silk ribbon around her soft throat. So cute! Octavia started to blush. "Vinyl, if you keep staring at me, I'll..." "You'll what?" That had come out in a bit more of a throaty voice than Vinyl had intended. Vinyl's cheeks were red. Octavia sucked in a breath and bit her lip, staring at Vinyl. Her eyes smoldered and her tone was breathless. "Vinyl, I... I wanted to make tonight just the way you want it. I... I don't want to rush things for you, my love." Vinyl's heart was pounding. Octavia's closeness across the small table was like a magnet, drawing Vinyl in. "What if... I want things to do a little faster?" In the flickering candlelight, Octavia's orchid-colored eyes almost seemed to glow for a moment. "I know you've been hurt before..." her voice was barely a whisper. Her hoof edged across the table. "But I'm here..." murmured Vinyl. Her hoof moved a inch forward. Her heart was racing and a heavy blush was in her cheeks. "I simply couldn't stand it if I ever-" Octavia's eyes were liquid pools in the gentle night. Vinyl's hoof shook as it edged closer to Octavia's. Her voice shook and she smiled "You'll never-" Octavia's voice was thick with emotion. "I promise-" She raised her hoof towards Vinyl's. "I think that-" "We're falling-" "In-" "Your salad." The pink mare from the front desk appeared, her hoof with a bowl of greens descended between Vinyl and Octavia, breaking their line of sight, snapping Vinyl back to reality. Octavia's dreamy expression de-existed in a microsecond and her blazing eyes snapped up to the young mare. "Just what the hell do you think you are doing," hissed Octavia, her hooves falling to slam onto the table with a BANG. The server's eyes widened in shock and she took a step back. "I... gave you your salad?" Octavia slapped the table. "Don't give me that! Don't you dare! You saw us! You saw that we were having a moment and you deliberately ruined it!" The server stuttered and looked in embarrassed stupefaction at Vinyl and at nearby diners who had turned to look at Octavia. "I... I just gave you your salad. You ordered it, s-so I served it. If I did anything wrong, I'm sorry-" Octavia rose from the table and bared her teeth, her whole body quaking with fury. "You nasty little raise-tail filly scut!" She growled viciously. "You're jealous! You're jealous of us and I won't have it! You stay away from Vinyl! She and I, we-" "Whoa there." Vinyl half-rose from her seat and laid a gentle hoof on Octavia's foreleg. "I'm sure she didn't mean anything." Octavia's mouth snapped shut and she immediately fell back into her seat. The server mare looked between the two of them with fear and shame before retreating across the restaurant and through the kitchen doors. Vinyl turned back to Octavia. "We're going to have to leave such a big tip... for... her..." Vinyl trailed off as she got a look at Octavia. Octavia's whole body was shaking. "Hey?" Vinyl reached across the table towards her. "Hey. Hey, what's wrong? Talk to me." Octavia quivered in her seat before tossing back her head, an uneven grin on her face. Octavia's face was flushed dark red. "I... I..." She clapped her hooves to her cheeks as if to absorb the heat of her blush and looked down at Vinyl with wild eyes. "I just realized that was the first time we ever actually touched!" Her tone was breathless and she looked at Vinyl with glassy, half-focused eyes. Her chest rose and fell heavily. "Okay..." Weird. A little. "Was it really such a big thing? I would have liked to, I mean, I felt-" Octavia squirmed in her seat, practically panting for breath. "It was so hard keeping control of myself around you, walking near you, sitting so close to you, Vinyl, for so long." Her eyes rolled up in her head and she swayed back and forth in her seat. "Oh... kay...?" "But now... now!" Octavia suddenly stood, knocking her chair back. Her forehooves pressed the edges of the table hard enough to shake. Her voice went husky. "I... I don't know if I can control myself any longer." She was looking at Vinyl with heavy, glinting eyes. "Octavia, I-" At the sound of hearing Vinyl say her name for the very first time, Octavia shuddered, closing her eyes in pleasure, jaw clenched, pressing the edges of the metal table hard enough to make the iron squeak as it bent. Vinyl's head and heart were racing. I should... I need to- She scooted back her chair. "I'm just going to go to-" "Ahhh, Vinyl...!" Octavia groaned. Her rear legs were shaking violently. A couple at the table next to them whispered, "is she dining off-menu?" "I'll be riiight back." Vinyl stood up. Octavia's eyes shot open. "NO! You can't leave me!" Vinyl took a half-step back. Octavia picked up and flung the table aside like it was made of cardboard. It smashed into the wall and ponies screamed. The bowl of salad fell and broke into long, jagged triangles and scattered everywhere. A shout: "somepony call the Guard!" Deep panic rose inside her and Vinyl's eyes darted wildly. I got to get out of here. "Vinyl, Vinyl," cooed Octavia. She had reared onto her back hooves and was looking down with shining eyes, a black strand of hair fallen from her bun dangling. "Don't you know we're supposed to be together? Don't you know? Don't you understand?" She giggled in a high-pitched tone. Then she lowered her head and looked out from under her brows. Her voice went hard as steel. "I won't let anything get between us again." Vinyl turned and ran. "VINYYYLLLL!" Octavia shrieked after her.