• Published 1st Jul 2014
  • 3,193 Views, 359 Comments

Foal Fever - Distaff Pope



With a filly on the way, Vinyl's started dreaming about her glory days as Equestria's premier DJ. A mysterious potion offers her a chance to feel young again, and with Vinyl's youth restored, Octavia's pregnancy is suddenly a lot

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12. Home Again (Vinyl)

I stared at the beige nursery walls. I’d wanted to paint it something a bit more colorful, but Tavi insisted that a simple color would be better because she thought “doing otherwise would create too strong a divide between our daughter’s room and the rest of the house.” It would have been totally cool if we’d made her crib look like one of my turntables, but whatever. I guess I let Tavi have that one since she was the one reading all of the books. Now that I was the pony being forced to (temporarily) sleep in the nursery, I wished I hadn’t given in so easily. This room would look way rad if we just spruced it up a bit, painted it an electric blue, put some music decals on the wall, and put in a few strobe lights. Instead, we made the whole room boring, just like the rest of the house.

The inflatable mattress Tavi had moved into the room squeaked as I rolled over on it, trying not to accidentally poke it with my horn. Why had I ever agreed to this? I really don’t see what the big deal about me being young again is, but I figured that if it helped Tavi calm down, I might as well go with it. I mean, the worst-case scenario was that I spend a couple of days staring at the nursery ceiling. I stretched and yawned, rolling out of bed to start my day, when I heard a pony knock on the door. “Can I come in, Vinyl?” Tavi asked.

“Sure thing,” I said as the door opened. I guess it was one of those questions where she didn’t really care about the answer just as long as she appeared polite. Or maybe she was still a bit pissed at me for running off to Canterlot, which I guess I can understand. I mean, if I was in her place, I would absolutely still be super pissed. In fact, it was kind of weird we weren’t still having a full-on fight, and Tavi had moved on to just being a bit cool with me.

Tavi calmly walked into my room, smiling as she did so. “Good morning, Vinyl. Did you sleep well last night?” She closed the door and sat next to me while I nodded.

“Yeah, the bed’s alright. I miss ours, but I promised I would give you a few days, and considering that you didn’t kick my flank the other night, I guess I owe you at least that,” I said, leaning against the crib.

She nodded at me. “Yes. You do. If not for the fact that we have a daughter on the way, our argument the other day would be greatly extended. Just promise to be on your best behavior, and I will try to meet you halfway.”

“Got it,” I said, frowning for a second. “What do you mean by ‘best behavior’ though?”

“I mean what we discussed yesterday. No more trips to Canterlot, no drinking with mares that aren’t Lyra or Bon-Bon, and I would appreciate it if you tried to contain your outbursts. If we are going to make this…” She sniffed. “Change of yours work, we must communicate with each other.”

“Alright,” I groaned, “but can we please do something fun? Like, I don’t even care what, just as long as it isn’t just staring at the ceiling.”

“Of course,” Tavi said, scooting next to me. “Once I get back today, I would be quite happy to have a meal with you. Until then, try to stay in either the nursery or your work room. Lyra will be by to visit you throughout the day, and if you need anything let Woodhoof know.”

“Wait,” I said, repeating her words in my head, “are you grounding me?”

Tavi shook her head. “Of course not. You are a grown mare, and I would never dream of treating you like you were a child. All I’m trying to do is keep you from doing something idiotic. If confining you upstairs is what I have to do to ensure that, then that’s what I’ll do. Now, try not to flee Ponyville today if you can help it.”

I groaned and rolled my eyes. “It kind of sounds like you are grounding me.”

“Call it what you will,” she said, getting up on her hooves and heading towards the door. “The important thing is I want to make sure you’re safe, and if that means making sure another pony is near you at all times, then that is what I have to do. I will be visiting your parents at our old house today, and will hopefully learn how they dealt with you as a teenager. Be good while I’m out.”

“We will still have our date tonight though, right?” I asked, feeling a bit of annoyance that she still didn’t trust me. Yes, I had made a few mistakes, but it didn’t mean she had to go around treating me like a child. I was a grown mare, appearance be damned. I tried not to groan as she headed out the door.

“Of course we will, I just want to ask for their insight.” She walked towards me and kissed my cheek while running a hoof through my mane. “I still love you, Vinyl Scratch, don’t doubt that – I’m just not sure how to deal with some of your outbursts right now.”

I frowned as my annoyance got tinted with guilt. So… yeah, on reflection, I had been completely rotten to her, but at the time it felt really right. I mean, why would I care about what another pony thought? Even if that other pony was my wife, my own wants trumped hers, and I still kind of felt like that, but I also felt terrible for hurting her. It’s… Maybe Tavi had a tiny point when she said my hormones were messing with my judgment. While I was totally right to get upset, I probably wouldn’t have had such a big reaction if I was my old self. Not that she was right about this being a bad idea, being young again was awesome, but she might have been right about me being a bit more impulsive than I normally was… I shook my head and found that the room was now empty. She must have walked out while I was thinking. Why did she have to keep making me doubt myself? Being young again was great, and I loved her, but even when she was supporting me she made me feel guilty somehow.

Somepony else knocked on the door. “Might I come in, Miss Scratch?” Woodhoof said.

“Sure,” I said, “I could use somepony to talk to.” The door creaked open and he trotted into the room.

“May I ask how you are doing this morning? You had a rather busy past couple of days, and you looked rather ill when you came in yesterday night.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I was really hungover yesterday. I was passed out for at least half of the train ride home.”

He shook his head at me and chuckled. “Ah, the follies of youth, something I don’t think I’ve experienced in quite some time. No, I was quite happy to trade that in for old age’s caution.”

“But isn’t it way duller?” I asked, wrinkling my forehead. “I mean, don’t you miss being young and feeling like you can take on the whole world?”

“Absolutely not,” he said, taking a seat on my mattress. “Oh, may I?” he asked, pointing a hoof at the seat.

“Sure,” I said, moving to the rocking chair we had set up in the nursery. “You can use this chair as well, if you want to.”

“Thank you,” he said as I positioned myself on the seat. It wasn’t comfortable exactly, but it was designed so ponies could hold their foal with two forelegs without falling on their face. “However, I feel far more comfortable if I have four hooves on the ground… or air as the case may be. Now to answer your question: no, I don’t miss feeling like I could take on the world, because age has granted me the knowledge that I don’t need to.”

“Well, I didn’t mean actually take on the world, I just meant–”

“I know what you meant,” he said, cutting me off for the first time since I’d met him “The point is that I prefer the surety of old age to what youth offered me.”

“Fair enough,” I said, wishing I could’ve gotten a few more hours of sleep in before I decided to get out of bed. “Hey, can I ask you a question?” He nodded. “Well, what’s up with Tavi? I can’t tell if she’s pissed at me or friendly. It’s like I really just don’t get her right now; she’s not doing what I’d do in her situation.”

“She’s concerned about you, Miss Scratch. While I suppose there might be some anger regarding your actions two nights ago, a concern for your well-being has been her primary motivation thus far.”

“But I’m fine,” I said, rocking back and forth in the chair. “Like, I feel better than ever, so what’s the big issue?”

Woodhoof sighed. “Miss Scratch, imagine you are in your wife’s shoes. She comes home one day behaving erratically, doing things you would have never imagined in a hundred years, and then claiming everything is fine. How would you react?”

“I guess I’d be worried too,” I said, suddenly feeling kind of bad for worrying her so much. “But why can’t she see that I’m fine?”

“Because, Miss Scratch, you haven’t been acting fine. As far as she can tell something is deeply, profoundly, wrong and it is in her nature to try and fix it. If you want her to believe you are well, then you should try acting like a mature adult as opposed to a petulant child, pardon my bluntness.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I mean, I guess I haven’t made the last few days easy for Octavia – but it’s like, all the things I want seem so important, and then everything else is just kind of pointless.”

He laughed at that. “A very accurate summation of youth. Now, I know Octavia fears you will run off to Canterlot again if I let you downstairs, but something tells me that desire to run is currently rather diminished. What do you say we head downstairs and I fix up a bowl of soup for you to eat?” Woodhoof asked, getting back up on his hooves. “Professor Heartstrings will be visiting soon and it would be rude of me not to have something prepared.”

I nodded and got up to follow him downstairs, thinking on Octavia’s earlier words. She was still totally into me, and that meant that if I tried hard enough, this fight of ours would be over soon and we’d go back to sharing a bed.

Author's Note:

Here we are, at the chapter written while suffering from a migraine. It was less terrible than I originally feared, but I'm still not 100% happy with it. Anyways, hope you enjoy. The next Vinyl chapter (Monday's) is going to be really fun.