Proximity

by paperhearts

Courage, My Love

"Smolder, I'm a little, uh, nervous." Ocellus stared down the busy street, her eyes flecked with shades of wild panic. "Okay... Make that a lot nervous! I don't think I can do this."

"Come on, 'Cel, you're gonna be great!" Smolder offered her an encouraging smile, before returning her attention to the amp Professor Pie's friend had lent them. The gesture was lost on Ocellus, however. As her girlfriend's thin wings threatened to shake themselves from her body, Smolder decided to change tack.

"Look", she added, reaching for the microphone stand beside her, "if it's any consolation, everyone has come for the morning markets, not to listen to you."

Ocellus gave her a look that was pure murder. "Thank you. Not helping!" She began to cradle the guitar in her forelegs, her chest fluttering erratically as she restarted another breathing technique. Smolder didn't know why she was bothering; they had been failing her all morning.

"'Cel," she tried again. When her girlfriend ignored her, instead fiddling with her collar as though it was some kind of protective charm, Smolder growled and stomped over.

"Hey," she hissed, tapping Ocellus lightly on the head. "If you're going to drop dead can I at least have all of your stuff?"

"Yes," her girlfriend replied tonelessly. Her wide eyes stared off into the distance, unblinking.

"Ah, geez." Smolder scratched one of her horns. She had a broken bug—how was she supposed to fix something like that? Watching the ponies as they set up their market stalls, Smolder ran through her available options. It didn't take long.

With a shrug, she turned and kissed Ocellus on the lips.

"Eep!" Ocellus stiffened, her cheeks turning scarlet. Smolder raised her mouth to her girlfriend's ear.

"Still awful," she said.

"I know," Ocellus replied. And then they both began to laugh.

"Look, we both know you don't have to do this if you don't want to," Smolder said as she returned to adjusting the mic stand. "It's your call, 'Cell, but if you want my opinion then you've gotta start somewhere. After all, you did say this is what you wanted to do after graduating from school." She looked back and grinned a grin full of fangs. "I know you can write pretty, inspiring songs, and so do you. And soon, so will everyone else."

Ocellus stared at the dirt track in front of her. Slowly, a timid smile formed on her lips. For a few seconds it threatened to break itself against the morning sunlight, but then it began to grow in confidence.

"Thank you, my love." Ocellus met Smolder's gaze. "I... I think I really needed to hear that."

"Any time, my love." A pleasurable warmth rippled within Smolder's body as she repeated the words. "Now go on—slay Ponyville with your best ballads!"

"Right!" Ocellus took a deep breath, nodded, and then approached the mic. Smolder carried out one final check on the amp before perching herself on it and waiting.

Ocellus looked up and down the street, inhaled another shaky breath, and then introduced herself at a volume barely audible.

Then she began to shred. And scream.

Smolder closed her eyes and sighed. She had never heard anything so beautiful in her life.

Author's Note:

Another reoccurring element concluded, and one final chapter left.

Man—this is totally the same feeling I get playing JRPGs, when I'm completing all of the character sub-plots and storylines before entering the final dungeon. Such melancholy.

As always, heartfelt thanks for reading.

Comments

[Melody Song]

Interesting short. I never figured Ocellus the type for heavy metal but it works. And I can picture Smolder comforting her, adorbs.

[RainbowDoubleDash]

Smolder closed her eyes and sighed. She had never heard anything so beautiful in her life.

I'm reminded of one of the good scenes in the movie Bright.

[semillon]

i imagine that Ocellus's screaming is comprable to the sound of ten cicadas in an echo chamber all ascending into the next dimension

it's probably great

[paperhearts]

10186860
It's always the quiet ones...

I can't remember why I had the idea to associate her with the genre, way back when. Glad I did though; I have huge fun with her being a proper metal fiend.

10186874
Snrk! I heard mixed to middling reviews about that, but it always struck me as a potentially interesting take on the subject. Is that like the standout moment, or is it a decent way to spend a couple of hours?

10187243
I imagine to be the quietest, squeakiest screaming ever brought to the mixing desk.

And thus adorb-metal was born.

[RainbowDoubleDash]

10187604

Is that like the standout moment, or is it a decent way to spend a couple of hours?

It’s got a lot of interesting concepts, but overall, it’s kind of meh. Especially if you’re like me and you love worldbuilding - it’s kind of lazy in that it’s literally just the modern world but there are 11 other races besides humans running around and always have been, and yet history seems to have gone more-or-less the same way. Best exemplified by a bit of throwaway dialogue intended to be funny but which made my inner worldbuilder cringe.

Jakoby: “How come every time there’s someone going on about dark prophecies, they always gotta make it about orcs?”
Beat Cop: “Hey man, don’t look at me, I’m Mexican. We still get shit for the Alamo.”

So this world had a Battle of the Alamo, which means it had a Texas War of Independence, which was caused in large part by Mexico outlawing slavery and the Tejanos wanting none of that because they wanted to keep their slaves, which means that there was a trans-Atlantic slave trade, but it still seems to have been focused on black humans being enslaved by white humans, but what about the orcs and centaurs and elves and so on, how do they factor into it?

Never brought up.

Lindsey Ellis did a good review on it:

[paperhearts]

10187708
[bug screaming intensifies]