Hearts Beat

by mushroompone

Yourselves

“I want you to move in with me,” I said suddenly.

Vinyl quickly tugged off one side of her headphones. "Sorry, what?"

"I want you to move in!" I repeated, a little more cheerfully.

“Oh!" Vinyl blinked. "You do?”

I put down my book. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I know Lyra and BonBon have you covered, but… it’s time. You should move in.”

Vinyl removed her headphones completely, resting them beside the record-player. “Wow." She seemed to be looking at a distant wall. "Not gonna lie, that would be pretty awesome."

"Really?" I grabbed her hooves in mine. "Oh, that's great. I talked to my brother about it, and--"

"You talked to your brother about it?" Vinyl repeated.

I cocked my head. "Yeah, why wouldn't I?"

Vinyl shrugged. "I dunno. Don't you have a bunch of friends to help you with that stuff?"

I laughed. "Yes, but I shared a room with Shining Armor when I was little. He knows better than anypony what I'm like to live with."

Vinyl nodded. "Alright, fair enough. Continue."

I shook my head to clear away childhood memories. "Right. I talked to Shining, and he said all this weird stuff about how I should be careful, and how living together can be a challenge."

Vinyl was sort of grimacing. "Uh-huh…"

"But I think he forgets how difficult he makes it," I continued. "Throwing dirty laundry everywhere, leaving snacks to get lost on his desk, snoring--"

"Okay, hold it," Vinyl said, holding up her hooves. "You snore, too."

I pinned my ears down against my head. "Yeah, but… it's a cute snore, right?"

Vinyl scoffed. "Just 'cause you're cute doesn't mean your snore is cute."

I scoffed. "Okay, moving on--"

"I love you and all, but your snores are violent," Vinyl continued, a smirk growing on her lips. "Every single one of them scares me, I swear."

I glared at Vinyl. "Anyway, I--"

"It's like you're a dying jet engine."

"Vinyl!"

"Like listening to a duck fight its way out of a pig."

"Anyway!" I said, giving Vinyl a playful shove.

Vinyl snorted in laughter, but did not continue her ever-popular comedy bit.

"He said we should try it out for a night," I said, trying not to laugh too much myself. "Be scientific about it, y'know? Act how we do when we're alone, and see if we can stand it."

Vinyl scratched the back of her head, trying to get her laughter under control. "That sure does sound scientific."

"So you'll do it?" I asked excitedly.

"I-I didn't say that," Vinyl said. "Look, I don't act the same at all when I'm sleeping with you versus sleeping alone. Who even says they have to be the same, right?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Well, I wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable spending the night with me."

Vinyl scoffed. "I've never once been uncomfortable spending the night with you."

"Not even the first time?"

Vinyl sucked in a breath through her teeth. "Okay, you got me. That one was a little uncomfortable."

"What about that really hot day in the summer last year?" I asked. "That was pretty uncomfortable."

Vinyl rocked her head back against the wall. "Oh, Celestia, don't remind me. I'm sweating just thinking about it."

"What about--"

"I mean, like, I've never wanted to act a certain way and stopped myself because I'm with you," Vinyl corrected. "I've never been laying in bed with you and thought 'gee, I would really like to fart right now, but I can't 'cause I'm with Twilight'."

"You've never farted in front of me?" I asked, perhaps more dramatically than the thought required.

Vinyl shrugged. "I hold 'em in."

"You just said you didn't!" I said.

"No, no," Vinyl said, wagging her hoof at me. "I said I've never wanted to fart in front of you. And I won't ever want to."

"Why not?" I demanded.

"Because, Twilight. You don't do that in front of your marefriend, no matter how serious," Vinyl explained.

I scoffed. "You can't seriously be saying you're totally different when you're alone."

Vinyl looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then back at me. "Yeah, no, that's exactly what I'm saying. Everypony is."

"But--" I sighed. "Is it wrong that I want you to just let it all hang out with me?"

Vinyl snickered. "'Let it all hang out'? Where the hell did you learn that?"

I cleared my throat. "Zephyr Breeze…" I muttered. "But the point stands! You should be able to be your total, authentic self with me. Don't you think?"

"Well… when you put it that way, yeah," Vinyl agreed. "I just think there's crap I do alone that isn't exactly integral to my authentic self, and that you could definitely do without."

"Such as?" I asked.

"I dunno… I sing myself to sleep some nights."

I furrowed my brows. "How does that work?"

Vinyl shrugged. "I get bored trying to fall asleep so I start singing."

"You get bored?" I repeated.

"Yeah, come on. Don't you ever make up those elaborate daydreams before you fall asleep?" Vinyl asked. "To keep yourself entertained?"

"Um…" I rubbed my chin. "I think I mostly just write checklists for the next day."

"No, like, when you're laying down," Vinyl corrected.

"Yeah. When I'm laying down," I agreed.

Vinyl blinked. "Wait, you write checklists in your head before you fall asleep?"

"You don't?"

Vinyl hung her head. "Twi, you gotta get some therapy for that anxiety. I'm serious." She looked up at me. "Sleep is the one time you're not supposed to be working."

I shrugged. "It's when I do my best work."

"Oh, Celestia…" Vinyl covered her face with her hooves.

I sighed. "You seriously don't wanna do a trial run?" I asked. "Is it because you don't wanna move in? I won't be offended, I just--"

"No, no!" Vinyl grabbed my hooves mid-gesture. "I definitely want to move in."

I smiled.

"But we don't need a trial run. We spend the night together all the time."

"But what if… what if Shining is right?" I murmured. "What if we're not being authentic?"

"I'm being as authentic as I need to be," Vinyl argued. "You don't need to see how the sausage gets made. They use all the ugly vegetables. It's disgusting, they're like little mutants."

"But I like the ugly vegetables!" I insisted. "I wanna take care of them, and appreciate them, and cook them into a casserole!"

Vinyl laughed. "You're a terrible cook, Twi. Love you-- but terrible."

I hung my head. "But-- well, I wanna try."

Vinyl sighed deeply. It was the kind of sigh a frustrated parent might make just before relenting to the wishes of their crying foal. "Okay," she said, putting a hoof on my shoulder. "I can see where this is going, so let's just cut to the chase and agree to do that trial run."

"Really?"

"One condition:" Vinyl said. "I want it known that I'm only doing this to prove you wrong. Everything is gonna go super smooth. Trust me."

---

"Just be yourselves," Shining had said. "For real. You'll regret it if you just dive right in."

But Vinyl was right! We'd spent so many nights together these past two years… and it had always gone well then. What, exactly, needed to change? Everything was going so smoothly. We had such a nice rhythm.

Vinyl arrived after dinner, wearing a rather large sweatshirt and generally looking quite cozy.

“Hi,” I said, smiling sweetly. “I like your sweatshirt.”

Vinyl flipped the hood off her head with one smooth motion. “Well, you can’t have it, Twilight Clothes-Stealer.”

I scoffed. “We’ll see about that.”

Vinyl rolled her eyes, a smirk briefly playing over her face. She trotted inside, giving me a quick peck on the cheek as she did. She made her way over to the nearest throne and began to struggle off her sweatshirt.

“Okay!” I said. “What’s the plan?”

Vinyl paused, the sweatshirt caught half-on and half-off. “Sorry… the plan?”

“You know. For tonight!”

Vinyl ripped her sweatshirt off rather violently. “Oh. I figured we could hang out a while. There’s a record up in the archives I’ve been meaning to get to.”

“I meant, like…” I shuffled my hooves. “The bedtime plan.”

“Uh…” Vinyl’s face contorted into a comedic grimace. “Y’know, Twi, we’re supposed to be doing things how we would normally.”

“Uh-huh…”

“So… I’m not planning on having a bedtime ‘plan’ every night,” Vinyl explained. “I’m just gonna live my life and eventually fall asleep.”

I chuckled. “Right, right…”

“Unless!” Vinyl stood up, her sweatshirt slung over one shoulder. “Unless y-you usually make a bedtime plan. ‘Cause I’m totally cool with that. That totally works for me. I love bedtime plans.”

“No!” I said, straightening up. “I don’t plan stuff.”

Vinyl gave me a knowing look. “Come on, Twi. You do too.”

“Not everything…” I murmured.

Vinyl came to my side, and wrapped a foreleg around my shoulders. “Alright. Tell me how a typical Twilight Sparkle evening goes.”

I smiled in embarrassment, equally happy and horrified that I was known so well. “I usually have a cup of tea around now.”

“Great!” Vinyl said. “Let’s have a cup of tea together.”

“Yeah?”

“Hell yeah,” Vinyl agreed. “I like tea.”

“But, what do you--”

“Bup, bup!” Vinyl placed a hoof over my mouth to gently stop me. “We’ll do my thing next, okay? Let’s have some tea.”

We walked together into the kitchen. I tried to covertly slip Vinyl’s sweatshirt off her shoulder, but she held onto it with her own magic quite expertly.

Vinyl plopped herself down at the island, and I began to gather things from the cabinets. “What do you usually do at night?” I asked.

Vinyl sighed. “I dunno. Depends.”

“Well, what did you do last night, then?” I asked, dropping some tea bags into mugs.

“Um…” Vinyl tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I did some composing on my ukulele from bed.”

“Wow.” I was honestly taken aback. I had seen Vinyl compose before, but it was always such an event. She would work surrounded by instruments, scribbling rapidly on papers every few seconds. “Do you do that a lot?”

“Sometimes,” Vinyl said with a shrug. “If I’m antsy.”

I walked the kettle over to the sink, and began to fill it with water. “So you don’t have any routines?” I asked.

Vinyl thought for a moment. “Brushing my teeth?”

I laughed. “What about all that stuff you said about being a totally different pony at home?”

“Oh, that stuff,” Vinyl said, feigning a breakthrough moment. She even smacked her forehead with one hoof. “I just… y’know, I spend time with myself.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You mean like--”

“Like listen to music!” Vinyl corrected quickly. “And, y’know, occasionally… other things.”

I rolled my eyes.

“What!” Vinyl complained, laughing. “See, this is what I was talking about; I only do that when I don’t have my marefriend around for some sweet lovin’. It’s irrelevant.”

“Of course,” I muttered, smirking at her. “How foolish of me.”

“Incredibly foolish,” Vinyl agreed.

The kettle began to rumble lightly on the stovetop.

I sighed. “So, you listen to music?”

“Smooth subject change, princess,” Vinyl commented. She cleared her throat. “Yeah. I like to just lay back, stare at the ceiling and listen to whatever comes on the radio. It’s how I got my cutie mark, y’know? Still feels good.”

I smiled. “That’s so sweet.”

Vinyl posed with her hooves under her chin. “I know, right?”

“Why don’t you do that when you sleep over?” I asked. “You must miss it.”

Vinyl’s face fell from a cheesy grin to a comical grimace. “‘Cause… I’m with you.”

“And?”

“And… That’s so anti-social,” Vinyl said. “You’re right there.”

“Yeah, but--”

“You can’t possibly tell me you never read in bed,” Vinyl said. “I know you. You’re a bedtime reader. I’m sure, when you were a filly, you got yelled at for staying up late to finish reading under the covers. Am I right?”

I cocked my head. “Well… yeah, but--”

“But you’ve never read in bed when I’m here,” Vinyl said.

The kettle whistled, and I pulled it off the stovetop, pouring the liquid into the nearby mugs. “I don’t see what that has to do with anything…”

“Oh, really?” Vinyl said. “You don’t see how it might be connected?”

I sighed. “Well, I like talking to you!” I said. “If you’re with me, I’m not gonna not talk to you!”

“Exactly!” Vinyl exclaimed.

“Well, I’m going to read in bed tonight,” I said. “I just haven’t before. So, there.”

“Right, right,” Vinyl said sarcastically. “You got me.”

I stuck my tongue out at her.

She stuck her tongue back out at me.

We held steady for a moment, glaring steely-eyed at one another, but unfortunately I lost the battle to laughter. Vinyl held strong for another second, but the sound of my own laughter proved too much for her.

When we settled a moment later, Vinyl sighed. “What will you be reading in bed, hm?”

“Oh! I think you’d like it, actually; it’s a noir mystery set in early Canterlot,” I explained excitedly.

We chatted easily over tea, slowly draining our cups as the sun went down.

When we finished, Vinyl and I went upstairs together. Vinyl had a spare toothbrush here, since she did spend the night from time to time. We brushed our teeth side by side, spitting in unison, and giggling over toothpaste beards.

For that time, I couldn’t possibly see what Shining Armor meant. This was so easy, after all! Just like any other time we spent together. What could change so much as to make this difficult? What was so hard about integrating your lives when you already went so well together?

At long last, Vinyl and I crawled into bed.

I switched off my bedside lamp. Vinyl switched off hers.

I cracked open a book, as I always do, using my horn as a book light.

We lay quietly for a while.

Then Vinyl kicked me.

I slid my leg away, figuring it was a mistake. But she kicked again.

I cleared my throat at her.

“Hm?” Vinyl rolled back over to face me. “What is it?”

“You’re kicking me,” I said. “Do you need something?”

“Oh,” Vinyl said, seeming to consider her actions. “No, sorry.”

“That’s alright,” I said.

My eyes returned to the page.

“Boy, what time is it?” Vinyl asked. “Like ten? Eleven, maybe?”

I glanced at the clock. “It’s nine-thirty.”

Vinyl sighed. “Wow. Seems later than that, doesn’t it?”

I closed my book. “If you want me to stop reading so bad, you can just say so.”

“Oh, no!” Vinyl fought, though not very enthusiastically. “Y-you can keep reading. It’s no biggie.”

“No, no-- it’s keeping you up,” I said, placing the book on my nightstand. “I’ll just go to sleep.”

“Okay. If you’re sure,” Vinyl said.

“I’m sure.”

I shimmied down into bed, allowing the covers to come up to my chin.

It was really no big deal. I didn’t need to read in bed. I could very easily just read at any other time of day. Plus, I bet my sleeping schedule could be better anyway. Maybe with Vinyl living here, I could finally get the sleep I’m supposed to be getting!

I sighed.

Vinyl was really warm.

Like, really warm.

I kicked my back legs out from under the blanket.

There, that was a little better.

Wow. Had she always been this hot? She was hot. Practically her own space heater, this mare.

I kicked my front legs out, too, allowing just a tiny stripe of blanket to rest over my stomach.

Vinyl made a sound of discomfort. “It’s cold in here.”

I scoffed. “Cold? You’re radiating heat.”

Vinyl rolled over to look at me. “Really?”

I nodded. “Do you not feel it?”

Vinyl looked at me. “Uh… no?”

Thoughts of elementary science whirled through my head, something about endothermic and exothermic reactions… I couldn’t quite remember. I was too hot!

“I can’t get out from under the blankets if you want,” Vinyl said.

“No, no. Don’t be silly,” I said.

“I’m not being silly,” Vinyl said. “I don’t want to boil you alive.”

“Well, then, why don’t you take the blanket?” I suggested, pushing it off on her. “And I’ll lay over here.” I started to slide all the way to the edge of my bed, hoping to catch a breeze.

“Uh… alright,” Vinyl murmured.

I folded my hooves over my chest, but even that was making me too hot.

Vinyl wrapped herself up in my quilt and seemed to go right back to sleep, now leaving me awake to fend for myself. In the desert. Or maybe a humid, cloying jungle.

Hm. Well, two can play at this game.

I reached back over to the night stand and pulled down my book, lighting my horn as quietly as possible and continuing to read.

I felt Vinyl shift. I’m assuming she looked over her shoulder at me, saw that I was back to reading, and angrily bundled herself up in the blankets to act as a shield.

We stayed this way for a while, sequestered to opposite sides of the bed, steaming in anger.

I felt like I wasn’t even reading the words on the page, though my eyes scanned over them anyway. Who did she think she was, coming into my home, telling me not to read my book, toasting up my blankets? I was the one who actually owned this place!

Oh.

Oh!

I rolled back over, just as Vinyl did.

“You know, if you’re going to move in, I should get a bigger bed!” I said. “This is only for one pony, we need one for two.”

“If you’re going to be reading, then I should just listen to music like I do alone, right?” Vinyl said. “Or-- I mean, maybe I’ll start reading with you!”

We looked at each other, worry dissolving to a shameful happiness. We started to giggle.

“I guess this is what Shining Armor meant, huh?” Vinyl said.

I shrugged. “Maybe he’s not quite as crazy as he seems.”

We talked well into the night. Talked about everything. All the details of how we lived, our day to day things. How Vinyl likes fluffernutter sandwiches. How I prefer to keep the castle a little chilly. How she likes the windows open. How I make the bed.

The next night, Vinyl and I fell asleep holding hooves-- her listening to music on studio headphones, me with a book open across my chest.

Author's Note:

In this house, we do fluff and character development at the same time

Comments

[mushroompone]

10217171
Yeah, this is what I mean when I say "not fully realizied" hahaha

When time is of the essence, you gotta throw stuff out! Even when "stuff" is a totally cute scene I had planned where Spike and Sweetie Belle fight over being flower girl... sacrifices had to be made

[Thought Prism]

Okay, the bedtime scene was gold.

[mushroompone]

10217300
Ah, yes, I call it "scenes from my college apartment" hahaha

[Midknight Defender]

Now that's a cute end to a chapter.

[Venerable Ro]

Shining knows what's up, there are problems you can only deal with by going out and finding them.

[mushroompone]

10218412
4.bp.blogspot.com/-2N28w3SdLd4/VeRz-umgXNI/AAAAAAAAToc/02YT4cXfgkw/s1600/hunny-storm-coming.gif

[Eris Dis Harmonia]

10217193
Side stories are an amazing thing.

[Professor Donger]

Of course Shining knows he's married

[Professor Donger]

10217193
Not gonna lie that fight between Spike and Sweetie while cute would be kinda pointless Spike could just brag about being ring bearer which is a more important role than flower girl

[Amos Anon]

I shrugged. "It's when I do my best work."

Lol, I'm the same way. I keep a notebook by my bed because I get some of my best ideas just before falling asleep.