The source of all her powers.
Octavia Melody knocked three times on the door to her girlfriends work room.
“Vinyl,” she called through the closed door. “Lunch is ready. Come and join me when you can.”
As always, she heard the mad scramble as Vinyl crashed and clattered around the room, hiding whatever it was she didn’t want to see.
It was a point of contention between the two. Octavia didn’t understand it… Vinyl had always joined her during her cello practice. It was sweet, as Octavia was fully aware that classical music was not Vinyl’s choice in easy listening.
Not that Octavia was overly enjoying it lately either, but Leopold Hoofmare was in fashion amongst the elite, so her quartet had to oblige.
So it stood to reason, that as a good girlfriend, Octavia should extend the same support to Vinyl. Unfortunately, Vinyl was adamant that Octavia was not allowed in her studio room.
Octavia had made the mistake once of trying to enter the room. She only wanted to clean the floor. She could have sworn it smelled like something had died in there! Vinyl had seen her try to open the door, and had rushed across and slapped her hoof away, quite violently. Octavia hadn’t been able to play the cello for a week.
That, of course, had led to a very loud and long argument, which then led to some very vigorous make up intimacy. Sometime between the first scream and then the final moan, Vinyl had extracted a promise, an unbreakable promise, that Octavia would never go into Vinyl’s work space.
The curiosity though, it drove Octavia mad!
“Awwww yeah!” Vinyl cheered as she levitated her sandwich towards her muzzle. Smoked eggplant with avocado and cream cheese on rye. “My favorite!”
“You’ve been working so hard,” Octavia said, kissing Vinyl on the cheek, before sitting down next to Vinyl on the couch. “I thought you deserved something special.”
“Thanks, Tavi! You’re the best.”
“I’m not really,” Octavia muttered under her breath, lifting her own cucumber and lettuce sandwich by hoof.
“So,” she said, “I overheard your latest number. That piece you are working on—”
“You were listening to me?” Vinyl gasped, her half chewed meal hanging out her mouth.
“I wasn’t listening to you—Vinyl! Close your mouth! I didn’t spend all that time making your favorite meal just for you to spill it on the floor!”
“Oh, sorry,” Vinyl muttered, as she scooped a half-chewed cud of sandwich and popped it back into her mouth.
“As I was saying,” Octavia said, scowling at the uncouth display before her, “I wasn’t listening in. I just overheard a little bit as I came to tell you lunch is ready.” She gave her girlfriend a flat look. “You don’t exactly keep your music down while you work.”
“Oh, yeah,” Vinyl replied, staring at the carpet. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. You just know how sensitive—” Vinyl let out a yawn. “—sorry! sensitive I am about my music.”
Vinyl let out another yawn. “Sorry babe, don’t know why I am feeling so sleepy.”
“No,” Octavia replied. “I’m sorry.”
“What for?”
“You always get sleepy after eating eggplant.”
Vinyl’s eyes widened, before they started to droop. Her head started to loll to the side, before gently hitting the cushion on the couch next to her. Her tinted glasses slid off of her face, and fell to the floor.
Tears streaked down Vinyl’s face, the look of betrayal evident in those beautiful red eyes. “Please, Tavi… don’t—”
Her eyes closed, and her breath deepened.
“I’m sorry, my love. But this is tearing us apart!” Octavia wiped away her own tears. “You’ll feel better once it is all out in the open, I promise!”
Octavia raced up the stairs, towards Vinyl’s room. While they hit pretty quick, an eggplant sandwich coma would only last thirty minutes tops with Vinyl.
Octavia pushed through the door, the smell emanating from inside was truly terrible. It smelled of rotting food and sweat.
Maybe that’s the reason, Octavia chuckled to herself, that she doesn’t want me in here. It truly is disgusting in here!
She made her way to Vinyl’s desk, wading through knee high piles of discarded chip packets and soda cans. Just in front of her, she could see the recording equipment, illuminated by the dull light from Vinyl’s laptop.
The closer she approached, the worse the smell got. A putrid stench, of something rotting, mixed with sweat permeated from the floor around Vinyl’s desk. Octavia gagged, and did her best to fight the rising nausea that welled in her throat.
Inches from the desk, Octavia’s hoof connected with something solid, buried beneath the refuse strewn about Vinyl’s desk.
What ever it was, there were wires coming from the mixing board, connecting to what was beneath the trash. It didn’t make sense, Vinyl was fastidious about keeping her equipment clean and safe. It was about the only thing in the house she did!
And the smell— the smell truly was something else.
Octavia started to brush away the rubbish, curious to find what was underhoof.
She screamed.
Vinyl rolled over in her sleep. There was always something nice about midday naps. Though something was tugging at the back of her mind, something telling her she had to wake up.
Meh, buck it! Whatever it was, it couldn’t be more important than catching a few zees.
A ear-splitting scream awoke Vinyl from her food-induced stupor, and it all came back.
No no no no no no no no no no!
Vinyl ran as fast as she could, towards her recording studio.
Tavi, no! Tears streaked down her cheek. You promised. You promised!
She rounded the corner and burst through the doorway.
Her greatest fears had finally been realised.
Octavia was standing there, above… it… screaming over and over again.
“No, it can’t— she couldn’t—”
“Tavi, please,” Vinyl spoke, drawing the earth mares attention to her. “I’m sorry, I never wanted you to—”
“No!” Octavia screamed. “Get back! Get away!”
Octavia backed away from Vinyl. Her eyes were filled with a fear Vinyl had hoped would never be turned on her.
“I’m sorry, Tavi. I never wanted you to know,” Vinyl pleaded as she moved slowly through the trash towards her hopefully-still girlfriend. Octavia looked again at the… thing… on the floor between them. Vinyl tried to get her attention again. “Don’t look at it, sweetie. Just look at me. I love you, okay. Please.”
“I— I—” Octavia started to hyperventilate.
“Please, I love you,” Vinyl pleaded. “Just look at me. This… this doesn’t have to change anything!”
“All your talent… your music, your popularity—” Octavia glanced back at the floor. “This is where it came from.”
“I know,” Vinyl said, ashamed. “I know it’s wrong.
“Don’t think I don’t know how sick and twisted this is!” Vinyl screamed, causing Octavia to back her flank to the wall. “This is why I told you to stay out! You could have just trusted me, we could have kept being happy. You didn’t need to know!”
Octavia glanced back to the ground.
“Don’t look at it, look at me!” Vinyl’s eyes were alight with a fire Octavia had never seen before.
“Just… just forget what you saw, babe, please.” Vinyl said, her voice softening. “Just, forget what you saw, and we can go back to the way things were.”
Octavia turned her gaze back to the floor. “I’m sorry, Vinyl, I could never forget this.”