Not My Fault

by Daemon McRae

Get Checked

Chapter 11: Get Checked

“What?” Vinyl sounded more than a little indignant, and I could really blame her. I wasn’t exactly in a position to say what she could and couldn’t do.

So I back-pedaled. “I’m just saying I don’t think it’s a very good idea. I mean, the last time you guys did anything more than say hi to each other it wasn’t exactly hours of fun for the whole family.” I smiled weakly while Vinyl seemed to mull it over.

“You do... have a point.” I was surprised that Octavia was the one to say it. “B-but I’m not like that! I... well, I can’t say I don’t have an idea of what came over me, but my therapist has yet to make a decision between daddy issues or identity repression. Either way, it hasn’t exactly happened since then, has it? And it’s not like my life is any less stressful.”

I waved my hooves in front of my face defensively. “Oh, no, I’m not saying you are! I’m just... you two aren’t exactly a stable compound. I can’t imagine what sharing living space would be like.”

Vinyl smirked at me, and even behind those enormous shades I could tel she was waggling her eyebrows. “What’s the matter? Afraid you’ll come to visit and find me in the throes of passion with a newfound love? DO you not want to chance my heart being stolen away by a beautiful classy lady of the upper crust?”

“Vinyl!” Octavia leaned back in her chair, but still looked a bit bemused. We could tell Scratch was just kidding.

I think.

“No, I’m more worried the next time I’ll see you will be on the front page of the paper or the side of a milk carton.” They both apparently found something amusing in my deadpan tone, and laughed. I tried to look serious for a while, but ended up joining in.

Vinyl was the first to recover and speak. “Look, Spitfire, it’s either I crash with her.” She nodded to Octavia, then leaned in and nuzzled my neck. “Or I stay with you...”

I thought about that for a moment. Vinyl in my house. More than likely in my bed. Sharing time together. Showers, long nights. It was a pleasant thought. It was almost a chore to think practically, what with her moving on from rubbing her muzzle into my shoulder to nibbling on my ear. Ok, sharing food. And a bed. Hot water. And a shower. She wouldn’t be there all the time. She had a job. She’d just be home to hang out, or eat, or... practice... on her sound system. Her enormous thousands of dollars loud as buck sound system.

“As much as I would love to.” Vinyl took that as a cue to nip the back of my neck, and I let out a groan. “I need sleep. You know, that thing normal ponies do where they don’t move for hours at a time and get well-rested?”

Vinyl leaned back and scoffed. “Pfff. Please. Sleep is for the week. At least Tavi can handle that.” Before Octavia got a chance to retaliate, or protest, or really process anything, Vinyl had jumped over to the side of her chair and thrown her arm around the charcoal mare. “Looks like we’re roomies by default! I’ll go get an overnight bag and stuff!” She ran off without giving either of us a chance to utter another word.

Octavia looked like she’d just chosen door number three and opened it to find a colt with a gun pointed at her. “Um... sleep is... for the weak?”

My shoulders slumped in sympathy. “I’m sorry.”

-------

No, it couldn’t be that bad. I mean yes, we’d had our disagreements. But I’d long come to terms with the fact that she was just sticking up for her friends or defending herself. She wasn’t an instigator or anything. I’d seen her apartment, and it looked... clean. There was no trash or old food. Just... stuff everywhere. and she wasn’t taking all of her stuff over to my place anyway. Just a bag or two and using my shower... and my kitchen... and sleeping in my apartment because hers wasn’t heated and it was now fall going on winter...

I leaned against the back of my chair. “Oh Celestia what have I done?”

Spitfire looked at me apologetically. “Again, I’m sorry, but there’s no way I can keep my schedule with her around. I mean, I love her to bits, and it’s not like our schedules conflict, but... I think I’ve maybe seen her sleep once or twice when she didn’t absolutely need to. She’s very much an... all-nighter pony.”

I looked at the pegasus seriously. “I... guess I can understand. And I did make the offer myself... but what about later?”

“Later?” She seemed confused. “Isn’t this just a short-term fix while they work on her wiring?”

I shook my head. “Not for me. For you. If you can’t live together even for a few days, what are you going to do when you two get more serious?”

She seemed a little confused at that. Then her befuddled look moved on to one of concern. “I... I hadn’t thought about that. She’s been totally serious about this ‘us’ thing. And I couldn’t be happier about it, especially after all these years and... no. I will figure this out. WE will figure this out. You’re right. You’re right! I need to be able to prepare for that when it happens.” Her confidence rose as she spoke, and when she was done she looked downright determined. Then she rounded on me. “So... I have to ask. Why did you offer in the first place?”

I’d kind of been hoping she wouldn’t ask me that. “I... I want to say it’s just for saying I’m sorry for how we... met. Part of me always did think that I never properly apologized. But I’m not that naive. There’s more to it, and as selfish as it may seem, I want to be able to prove to myself that I’m not the pony she knew for that one rather unpleasant week. I’ve been avoiding her because part of me is afraid that there’s always going to be that other little piece of me that will always be like that. I still don’t know what all happened, and I have to come to terms with the fact that I might never know, but I feel like, and here’s the selfish part again, like I owe it to myself and to Vinyl to prove that I’m a better pony than I started out as when she first met me.”

“I always did wonder if that was a ‘just me’ thing.” I jumped around and saw Vinyl standing in the doorway smiling at us. Over her shoulder I saw a few worker ponies reading schematics and pointing.

“Oh, um, Vinyl! I... uh...” Stupid words, why won’t you work? “Did the... did the electricians say anything while you were in there?”

Vinyl nodded. “Yeah, but the conversation out here is more... stimulating.” Her smile looked like a cobra’s.

“Stimulating?” Spitfire’s tone and expression were all confusion.

The white DJ looked back and forth between myself and her marefriend. “...oh come on! You have to admit having two beautiful mares argue over who gets to keep me at their place is totally hot.”

My hoof met my face in a time-honored expression of exasperation. “Vinyl... Look, what did the electricians say?”

She huffed while Spitfire chuckled into her hoof. “You’re no fun. They said it might be a few days cause it tug some wires out. Hard. I think he said there should be a few neighboring apartments without... power...” Vinyl’s voice trailed off as her gaze moved to a lamp on a nightstand. That was flickering. Oh please... no.

You know that sound when all the power goes out? Like, all at once? That heavy click as some circuit or another trips and the winding down of electrical currents? Yes, it’s terrifying. My whole room went dark. “Oh no. No no no no no....” I sprung to my hooves and ran into Vinyl’s apartment, where a rather frustrated electrician was staring at the ceiling. I followed his gaze to see a pegasus in work clothes fuddling with some wiring.

They shouted back and forth using a lot of terms I didn’t understand, until I finally coughed lightly to get the electrician’s attention. He looked down at me, and must have seen something in my admittedly panicked expression, because his face softened. “You don’t... happen to live across the hall, do you?”

“...yes?” My answer was timid and blindly hopeful.

“Do you have a place you can hang out for a few days?”

--------

I have to admit, Spitfire’s place was totally cool. I thought she lived in a cloud like a bunch of other (ok, one other) pegasi I know. But it was actually this two-story thing built into the side of this big-ass rock that wasn’t quite attached to the mountainside. I mean, it was, that’s how it got there, but it wasn’t... oh you know what I mean.

Spitfire, the awesome, sexy, wild mare that she is, agreed to let us both stay here while the apartment got fixed. She made me leave my recording equipment and speakers and stuff, though. At least I still had my laptop and some headphones and stuff. I had to fight for the turntable. Or rather, ear-nibble my way to victory. It was a fierce battle. Casualties on both sides.

The casualty being I didn’t get to sleep in her bed. Octavia and I would be sharing a room. Which was ok, I guess.

“Alright, there are a few rules here, you two.” Spitfire talked over her shoulder while she worked the key with the lock. “I’ve got to get up in the morning. I can usually go with only a few hours or so of sleep, but there is going to be some kind of mandatory bedtime. Or at least a set hour where you two need to be quiet.”

She kept saying you two, but I was pretty sure she was talking about me. She was using her Captain Voice and looking over at me every once in a while. “Yes, ma’am!” I saluted, earning me a shadow of a smile.

“Damn right. No using all the hot water. No parties unless we plan them first. Actually, you’re only here like a week or so. So no parties. At least not here. I don’t care if you go party somewhere else, but not in my house. I don’t need to be on the news.” She led us inside and Octavia and I put our bags down, taking a moment to look around.

Her whole house was like a Wonderbolts Museum. Now, I’d always thought it was awesome that she was the Captain of the team and they were the best fliers in Equestria and all of that jazz. But aside from the times I went to her shows I never really saw that part of her life. She was always a different pony around me. Being here, in her home, seeing all of the memorabilia... I realized at least a little how much a part of her her job really was.

I guess this is how ponies feel when they see all my equipment when they first walk into my place.

Of course I’d been here before. But usually just to pick her up, or when we got in late at night. You don’t pay as much attention to your surroundings then as you do when you look around the place you’re going to be living, even just for a little while. As I glanced around, I noticed Octavia taking in the individual displays, making rather cute “Oohs” and “Aahs” as she walked.

But Spitfire wasn’t done. “Help yourself to food and stuff, I know you guys brought some from your house so it didn’t go bad, and honestly, I’d prefer you eat that first. Don’t roughhouse, and for the love of Luna don’t break anything.” She looked back and forth between both of us as she said that.

I tried my best to be offended. “Hey, name the last time I broke something-”

“The table in my office.” Spitfire had an answer ready.

I smiled, though. “That was a group effort and you know it.” She blushed, and I knew I’d hit the nail on the head. “Seriously though, I’m totally careful with other ponies stuff.”

“Now.” Again with the retorts. Then she looked at Octavia. “And you. I know you’ve been doing all this therapy and self-help and what have you, but I feel it bears repeating- please try not to lose your marbles in my house.”

The charcoal mare blushed, and looked a bit sheepish, but her gaze didn’t falter. “That’s the plan.”

My marefriend smiled, and her voice returned to it’s sexy, sexy rasp. Sweet moon in the sky I’d had dreams about that voice. “Ok, let’s get this party started.”

Author's Note:

Yay, plot progression! I’m trying to tie up some loose ends from early on in the story, as well as lead to the conclusion I have somewhat written down in my head maybe somewhere.

...plot!

Comments

[moguera]

Well......this is gonna go over like a rock concert in a nitroglycerin plant. But hey, explosions are pretty.

[metroid_freak]

This can only end well, right guys?

...guys?

...Where are you?

...Please don't leave me here with...them...

...I'm so cold...

[Cheer]

Is it going to turn poly? I hope so. That would be almost too win.

[Hesitant Brony]

I keep reading this.
and I keep enjoying it more.
Good to have Octy back in the story.
this can only end in disaster, completely uneventfully (which would be a real shocker truth be told), or in a threeway.
the two most likely options hold the most promise for me.

[Frantic Starz]

They said it might be a few days cause it tug some wires out. Hard.

They said it might be a few days cause it tugged some wires out. Hard.

[Frantic Starz]

I realized at least a little how much a part of her her job really was.

I realized at least a little how much a part of her, her job really was.