The Only Chapter
"Vinyl, try not do destroy anything while I'm away."
"I don't need foalsitting! I can handle myself."
"Sometimes, I just don't know."
"You'll be back by nine?"
"Yes, and you don't have any work today?"
"Nope."
"Then I'll see you in a few hours."
The corners of Octavia's mouth turned up slightly and she game me a quick peck on the cheek. I tried my best not to turn red, but my valiant effort was crushed by the blood rushing to my cheeks. Tavi either didn't notice or was ignoring it for my benefit.
"Goodbye, Vinyl."
"See ya, Octy."
I wasn't ever sure Tavi's feelings for me were purely platonic or otherwise. I wasn't sure about my feelings towards her either. We hadn't really ever discussed it. Sure, we were living together, but we were young and were still just starting to get our careers together until we could actually make a substantial paycheck, living together and splitting the rent was economical. I thought I saw some subtle flirting from her the other night, but it's certainly possible that I was just reading into it too much. She could have also just be teasing me, as ponies as close as we were often do.
She lugged her cello case out of the door, closing it behind her. She never let me help her with her cello, she could be stubborn like that. She was usually pretty easygoing, if I did something she considered impolite, she'd just roll her eyes playfully and smile. The one thing that got her really worked up was mistreating her instruments. She once beat some poor stallion unconscious because he insulted her cello after dropping it accidentally. The snotty bastard had it coming, but I don't think anyone expected good-natured Octy to be so violent... or strong.
I was now alone at home. It was five in the afternoon. Normally we'd have about three to four hours together before I go somewhere for a gig, so this was special. Octavia was found by somepony and was invited to audition to be a cellist at the Canterlot Philharmonic Orchestra! That was really cool! I think. It sounds prestigious, at least. I don't really know, but still; Octy was finally getting some recognition for her talent.
With that thought, I realized that I had been gawking at the door for the past few minutes.
Such a captivating door it was.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts and walked to my makeshift studio. It was just a small room lined with pillows and comforters that was home to some recording devices, a turntable set, a mixtable, a drum pad, a synthesizer, and a fold out couch. This room was also my bedroom, Tavi didn't want me converting the living room into a studio. It may have been a bit cramped but I still loved it, it was my sanctuary. As much as I enjoy the party scene, I occasionally like to have some quiet time to myself.
With which I would use to mix music at its maximum volume and bass level.
I just can't get enough of that sexy, sexy bass.
Heheh.
I put on my awesome shades, set up the speakers and turned on my gear. It whirred softly as the magic circulated through the various parts of the devices, warming them up for the coming session. I moved over to my drum pad, and quickly tapped out a sick beat. I pressed the button and it started looping. I moved to the keyboard, I hit a half note, and changed to a higher note, I flipped a switch and the thirty-second note, four octave arpeggio spiced up the notes. I let that loop while I played some ambient samples. I bobbed my head to the harmony of all the elements of my music coming together for a little while. Then, my favorite part came. I made the volume crescendo to its maximum, then when it was at its max, turned up the gain as high as it went. I shifted over to the synthesizer, turned the dials to my custom wobble bass preset, and let it drop. Shivers ran down my spine, making my hair stand on end.
Ooh.
S'good.
I spent a few hours mixing tunes together and fooling around with the synthesizer.
Until the speakers exploded.
I had hit the resonant frequency of the odd material that the speakers were made of and they shattered into countless pieces with a deafening pop. I knew I should have stuck with my trusted brand. Ugh. I have to buy new ones now, just great. I heard a second sound, it was kind of faint due to my soundproofing, but it sounded almost like it came from Octy's-
Oh Celestia no.
I ran over to Octy's door and braced my self.
Oh nonononononono, please no.
I activated my magic, coating the handle in light blue waves, turning it slowly and pushing it forwards.
Oh no, oh Celestia, oh no. No. No.
The door opened and I walked inside tentatively. It smelled a strangely sweet smell like the stuff Octavia put in her mane mixed with wood polish. I surveyed the room from left to right, my eyes moved to the instruments kept on the wall: violin, viola, cello was missing, Tavi had it, and the double bass. The once beautiful, finely crafted piece of mahogany, ebony, and spruce was lying on the ground, split in two, with splinters of wood sticking out.
Not good.
The double bass was Tavi's favorite instrument along with her cello! It was an expensive, one-of-a-kind, custom-made gift from her ensemble members! She'd kill me if she were to find out!
In my frantic pacing and worrying I had only just noticed the mint-green mare lying under the bass with splinters of sticking out of her. What the hay was Lyra doing here? Lyra was always an eccentric, but why did she have to be here spontaneously now!?
She wasn't moving. Oh, poor Lyra. The double bass had fallen on her head.
Oh, Celestia did I kill Lyra!?
I felt weak, my heart was racing, and my breathing was slight and sharp. I looked at my hooves, which were shaking violently.
I had to do something, and quickly.
I ran over to the phone, I would call the police.
No! I'd go to jail, I was in the house at the time, it looks like murder and I have no alibi! I can't go to jail! My loved ones would disown me! Nopony would love me it they found out I killed Lyra!
I'm so sorry, Lyra!
I ran back to the room and looked at the unmoving unicorn mare on the floor. I took a deep breath and mustered all my strength to lift her up with my magic. Her body slumped limply as I carried her out of the door and around to the back of the house and placed her on the backyard ground, compressing the blades of grass beneath her. I was glad it was the time of year when got dark really early. I found a shovel and levitated it up with my magic, I stuck the sharp end into the grass. The moon rose slowly over the next hour, hanging in the night sky, watching me. Dirt was flown into the air, landing behind me as I dug deeper into the lawn. Using the amount of magic that I was using then was extremely physically exhausting. I wiped sweat off of my forehead with a hoof. I put the shovel down and collapsed with a muffled thump onto my side. My shades fell off of the tip of my nose and hit the grass below.
I was hyperventilating, blackness was skirting around the edges of my vision, making everything in my field of vision swim sickeningly. Tears fell from my bloodshot eyes, leaving streaks on my fur. I felt my lunch trying to force its way up my stomach, I forced it down, more tears wetting my face.
I looked at the mare lying on the grass next to me. I turned to face the other direction.
She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, she didn't deserve to die. She was so young, she never got to live life to its fullest!
Oh, Celestia what have I done?
I'd put out a light permanently, I've destroyed a precious soul!
Who was going to tell Bonnie?
How would she react?
"What have I done?" I asked of nopony in particular.
"You know, If you were looking for fossils, your backyard is not the right place to do it."
Lyra's upside-down head appeared suddenly in my vision, giving me a look somewhere between concern and amusement. I flinched as if I had seen a ghost.
"Dammit, Lyra!"
"When you decide to bury somepony you should at least check if she's breathing first."
In my panic stricken state, I had forgotten to make sure of that. I just wasted an hour. Sometimes, I think that I'm too impulsive. Sometimes.
I didn't know weather to strangle or hug Lyra, so I chose somewhere in-between and pulled her into the tightest hug I could give. I squeezed her tighter until she made pained squeaking noises, at which point I let up a bit.
"Buck you, Lyra- I'm so sorry!" I said, my emotions running into each other and getting my voice confused.
"Don't worry about it, I tried to do something similar once before when Berry Punch and I-"
"Please shut up."
We lay there on the ground for a little while, I just held her, glad that she was alive.
"Why was I unconscious?" She inquired.
"The double bass fell on you."
"Octavia's going to kill you."
"I know."
I stood up on all fours and offered Lyra a hoof, she took it, and I helped her up off of the ground. She looked at me, her face suddenly changing to one of confusion.
"What the hay was I doing in Octavia's room?"
"I should be asking you that."
"The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma."
I tilted my head at her and blinked. She just looked off to the right of me, staring distantly into the night sky.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I think so." Lyra drew her attention back to me and scratched the back of her head with a hoof.
"What are we going to do about Octy's bass?"
"Oh, no. You mean you. I'm not in this."
"You have to help!"
"You almost buried me alive!"
"I'll tell Tavi."
"She'll just be too angry with you to care about me."
"Tavi'll tell your marefriend, and she'll be left to speculate why you were in another mare's bedroom."
"Consarnit."
"...Consarnit?"
"...I should never use that word again."
"...That's probably for the best."
"Yeeaaah..."
An awkward silence passed over the two of us for a moment.
"Hey, Vinyl."
"What's up?"
"Your shades."
"Yes. Shades. I should pick those up."
I scrambled up my shades from the ground, wiping dirt off of them and putting them on.
"Let's go inside."
"Yes. We should do that."
Lyra followed me indoors, I poured her a glass of water. Lyra drank slowly, the look on her face was distant and thoughtful. Her eyes moved back and forth as if reading invisible sheet music. Or a book if you don't like musical allegories. Lyra put the glass down and tapped her chin.
"I've got it!"
"Does it involve humans?"
"Not directly-"
"No."
"But-"
"I said no."
"Ugh. Fine." She said, blowing hair off of her face, and shifting to a different position, slouching against the wall while standing on two legs.
I thought for a moment.
"The first thing we need to do is get the double bass to the shop."
"Obviously, but it won't be finished before she gets back. Quick Fix is fast, but not that fast, especially with string instruments. She prefers clocks."
"We need a distraction."
"I come in, and I have hands and-"
"I said no."
"Come on, that's really distracting!"
"No."
"You're no fun."
"I'm a DJ, I know fun!"
Lyra humphed and crossed her front hooves. We both stood and thought for a little while. Tavi only ever really put a lot of focus on her playing, but playing would probably be the last thing she would want to do after a stressful audition.
"You should take her for dinner. Y'know as congratulations." Lyra offered.
"That's... actually a good idea." I was taken by surprise slightly.
"I know, I couldn't have thought of a better one myself!"
"You did think of it."
"That's right!"
"What if she doesn't want to go out?" I asked.
We mostly eat out nowadays unless we're too exhausted to do so, we'd normally order pizza or something, but time is quickly running out, the nearest pizza place takes really long, and pizza is eaten to quickly to serve as a distraction long enough to make up for the unknown amount of time it would take to get the cello fixed and back into the room without Octy noticing.
"I'll make dinner."
"You suck at cooking."
"I do not!"
"You burned celery and blue cheese dip."
"So?"
"You don't cook celery and blue cheese dip."
"Whatever. You cook. Hey, it could be more romantic that way!"
"Wh-What!? Octy and I-"
"She's totally in to you."
I thought that Lyra was a bit too much of an eccentric conspiracy theorist to trust on relationship matters.
"She's straight! She had a coltfriend when I met her."
"She still likes you."
"Of course she likes me, platonically, she would have kicked me out months ago if she didn't! Look, I'll just make dinner and you go get the double bass fixed."
"Yes, ma'am."
"I told you never to call me that ever again, or I would deafen you permanently."
"'Kay, Vinyl."
I sighed, Lyra seemed to take notice and shot me a concerned look.
"Is something wrong, Vinyl? You seem strangely... down to earth today."
"What do you mean?"
"You're too sensible."
Wow, she was right, I was too sensible. I wasn't normally like this. I guess something was up. Maybe it was just that I thought I killed Lyra just a few minutes ago. It just might be that.
"What's happening to me?"
Lyra placed a hoof on my shoulder.
"We'll get through this together."
Lyra looked me in the eye intently until we both burst out laughing our flanks off. We laughed for a solid three minutes and took another minute to cool down. My sides hurt a lot and I wiped away happy tears from my eyes. A good laugh really helped my mood.
"Thanks for that, Lyra."
"No problem. I also have a feeling you like her-"
"You should get going."
"Yup."
Lyra dashed out of the door as quickly as I'd ever seen her move.
"Lyra! You have to get the bass first!"
Lyra ran back inside and retrieved the bass, holding it in her magical grasp and running out the door again.
So, I got to cooking. I grabbed some mushrooms, daisies, lettuce, oil and bread from the pantry. I levitated a pan and turned the knob on the gas stove to high heat. I poured a small amount of oil onto the pan and put the mushrooms to sauté. While that was happening, I started to cut the lettuce into strips.
I noticed my magical aura was grey, and thinking about it changed it back to the cool blue color it normally was. Maybe I did like her that way.
I got out two plates and covered them with shredded lettuce, I then placed the mushrooms around it in an aesthetically pleasing fashion. I hoped Octy liked smiley faces, 'cause I made smiley faces. I bordered the dishes with the daisies. I put the dishes on the little round dining table and got out some forks. Four spokes for salad, I think. Maybe it's three. I just hoped I had gotten it right. I never understood why ponies used utensils in the first place. Lyra had a theory that those were one of the many remnants of an ancient civilization of humans that were used regularly by modern ponies. It was kinda plausible, it didn't really make sense how awkward it had to be when holding the silverware with hooves and food could just be levitated directly to the mouth, yet silverware is still so widely used. Also, from what Lyra told me about them, silverware seemed designed to be handled with hands.
I learned how to cook back when I didn't have a job, and was basically mooching off of Tavi. She insisted it wasn't mooching, but I insisted that I should do something to make up for my inability to help with the rent. She said that my presence was enough. Tavi really is sweet. Unless somepony touches her instruments. In which case she's the scariest pony I've ever met. Speaking of which, she should be home any time now. I went to the bathroom and attempted to comb my mane, when suddenly I remembered why I never do that when the comb got stuck in my hair. I struggled with the innumerable knots in my mane in vein attempt to retrieve the comb from its unyielding grasp.
I heard a knock at the door, I ran over and opened it. Tavi was at the other end.
She looked pretty upset.
Octy stepped inside, deposited the cello case by the door and wrapped her hooves around me, I returned the gesture.
"Hey, Tavi."
"Hi, Vinyl." Tavi's response was muffled from her face buried in my neck. It kind of tickled when she spoke.
"How'd it go?"
"I wish I knew." She let me go, I pulled a chair out and gestured for her to sit. Her eyes lit up when she saw the food, I sat at the other side. She smiled at me.
"You spoil me, Vinyl."
"It was nothing, really."
"Nothing you do is nothing."
We ate in comfortable silence, eating our salad, the only sound was the scraping of the forks against the plates and the crunching of the salad. We made some small talk, talking about our respective days outside of work, stuff like that, for about an hour.
"So what do you mean when you say that you don't know how you did."
"They said that they would get back to me by next week." She sighed and pushed the bits left of the salad around the plate.
"You're an awesome cellist, I'm sure you'll get in."
"There are thousands of ponies who auditioned from all over Equestria, all fighting for the position I want."
I took off my shades.
"Octy, you'll get in."
Those shining purple gems met my eyes, I studied every detail like as if it were finals week and I'd ran out of parties to procrastinate in.
"You think so?"
"Yup."
"I'm glad you're so sure."
"C'mon, Tavi! Have a little faith in yourself."
Just as I said that, the door opened and Lyra came walking in with the double bass all fixed up, as good as new. Octy's ears twitched and she started to turn around to see what made the noise.
"So, how'd you like the salad?" I asked, making her attention come to me again.
"It was very good. I especially liked the smiley face. Very cute." Yes! I knew that was a good call!
"I knew you'd like that."
"Who doesn't like smiley faces?"
"I can think of a few ponies, remember our musical theory teacher?"
Octy let out a little giggle. She could be really cute sometimes, or was it all the time?
"Yes! Oh my, I don't know how he managed to make a lecture about golden ratios in instruments terrifying!"
We laughed at that remark, that was a scary lecture. Our teacher used to always slam loudly his hoof on the desk randomly to wake up any sleepy students and speak as if he were constantly angry about something. In the golden ratios lecture he stared us down until we practically wet ourselves and moved on to glare at the next student. In a way though, he was an effective teacher. I will never forget in my life how 1.618 corresponds to so many things in music from notes to the shape of instruments.
As we spoke a bit longer about school and other nostalgic topics, Lyra came out of Octy's room. She smiled and stuck one hoof up at me before looking at it as if something were missing, frowning and continuing out the door. She opened the door and it creaked slightly. Tavi began to turn her head. I made intense eye contact with her.
"Tavi, I need to tell you something."
"What is it Vinyl?"
The door closed with a thud, prompting me to make a move before Octy could react.
"OctaviaI'minlovewithyou!" I grabbed her and pulled her head so that her lips would meet mine. She was taken by surprise at first, her eyes opening wide in shock, before relaxing and closing, her lips kissing me back graciously.
Well, that cleared a few things up.
We let go, she took me by the hoof and led me off of the table, we stood there looking into each other's eyes, judging each other's facial expressions. Tavi leaned in closely putting her muzzle right up to my ear.
"Vinyl." She dispersed my name into my ear, sending shivers down my entire body, I was really red right then.
"Yes, Octy?"
"BUCKING FINALLY! I'VE BEEN LEADING YOU ON FOR MONTHS NOW!" She yelled into my ear, making it ring with the sudden amplification of her voice and toppling me over.
"Really? I thought I was reading too much into it." I said rubbing my head where it had hit the floor.
"Vinyl Scratch, I love you. Even if you can sometimes be really stupid." Tavi grabbed me by my hoof and pulled me up, brushed me off and walked me over to her room.
Was this really happening, was Octavia bringing me into her room?
Octavia untied her pink bowtie and removed it along with her collar, she fluffed her hair out and looked at me. Her purple eyes seemed to glow softly in the dim lighting of her room. She walked over to me, swaying her hips in an enticing, slightly exaggerated manner. Tavi threw both of her hooves around my neck and stared deeply into my eyes, reading my mind with her gaze. I felt myself heat up as Octy's head moved closer and closer to mine tilting to the left, inching slowly, her eyelids falling and her mouth opening slightly. I mirrored her movements, tilting to the right. Our lips met, tongues probing the inside of the other's mouth. We fell sideways onto the bed, Octavia's hoof caressing the back of my neck, my hooves running through her silken black mane.
and then we sex
I awoke slowly to the morning light shining upon me from the open window. What a wonderful morning. I yawned and turned to see a sheet turned aside and an impression in the mattress where Tavi used to lie. The smell of fresh coffee got me up out of my bed and into the kitchen.
"Morning, Octy." The mare turned around to look at me, offering me one of the mugs she was holding in her hooves. I took one.
"Look who's decided to get up." She spoke, her voice smooth and sophisticated, her eyes not showing an ounce of tiredness and her little smile as great as ever.
"I'm not a morning pony." I said, taking a sip of my coffee.
"I like what you did with the double bass."
I spat out my coffee. Tavi giggled and wiped coffee off of herself with a napkin and then off of me.
"You didn't think I would notice?" She teased.
"No..."
"I know when one of my instruments have been fixed by a professional. Lyra took it to Quick Fix while we were eating."
"Yeah, wait, how did you know Lyra was involved with this?"
"I saw her while we were eating the salad."
"Oh."
"I just don't understand one thing."
"What's that?"
"Why is there a huge hole in the backyard?"
"Some tales are best left untold."
Tavi chuckled and pulled me into a hug.
"I love you."