Dueling Piano's

Chapters

Allegro
Scherzo
Sonata-Rondo
Andante

Allegro

~~~Seventeen Years Ago, Ponyville~~~

“Where you headed kid?” the kindly faced station master said as he peered through the iron bars at the filly who now stood in front of his booth. All around them, the rain poured down around the eves of the ticket office as though the skies themselves were weeping for the loss of the little white filly who hoofed a little pile of bits through the window. She wore a pair of outsized shades that hid her distinctive eye color, and her mane tucked under a cute little cap.

“Manehatten,” she piped up as she dropped the dozen bits that the ticket would cost on the counter, and the ticket master arched an eyebrow at her. “I’m goin’ to see my sister there!” Arpeggio proclaimed in the most convincing voice she could muster at that moment. In truth, she didn’t know where her sister was. Momma and Poppa had refused to tell her, and she couldn’t get anypony to tell her back at the orchestra either. But Manehatten was a big city full of musicians and that’d be a good place to start looking.

The station master eyed the bits then shook his head. “Youngin’, yer slingin’ a load a’ bull so big it’d make an Apple blush. Where’re yer parents?” he asked in a dubious voice… a question which immediately conjured a look of fear upon the little filly’s face. His eyes narrowed a little. “Youngin’ what’re you runnin’ from?” he asked in a soft but not unkind voice, trying his best to project some soothing understanding towards the filly.

The white filly shook her head frantically. “I can’t! If Momma and Poppa catch me…” She clutched at the straps of her saddle bags, unable to process the words. The phrase ‘deal with you’ had appeared in no few of Arpeggio’s favorite comic books, and she knew what the bad guys meant when they said it - and it was never, ever a good thing. “Please! You gotta let me go!” she pled with the stallion, hoping beyond hope that maybe just this once, an adult pony would show her a little bit of kindness.

The station master blew out a sigh and chewed on his mustache for a moment… before shoving the bits back across the counter. For a moment, Arpeggio felt her heart sink into her hooves until the sound of a ticket being torn from the roll brought her head back up. “Ain’t gonna take your bits, youngin’. Train leaves in ten, an’ I’ll let the Engineer know not t’ bother ya. Go find a lady named Charity Heart when ya get t’ Manehatten. She’s a good ‘un, an’ she’ll give ya a place t’ hang yer hat.” His voice spoke with a brusque sort of understanding, and Arpeggio felt her eyes fill with tears as she collected both bits and ticket. She turned towards the train when his voice called her attention back for a moment. “An youngin’? If ya can’t find a safe place, tell one ‘a the station masters tha’ Steam Stack said t’ bring you on. We’ll keep ya safe if nopony else will.”

Arpeggio nodded, and then in a burst of completely uncharacteristic exuberance yelled as she cried without shame, “Thank you so much, sir! I will never ever forget your kindness!” Then she ran through the rain towards the awaiting train, oblivious to the sad but understanding smile of the station master. She didn’t know what her future held - but she was going to find Tavia.

No matter what.

~~~~Present Day, The Friendship Express~~~~

Vinyl Scratch woke up with a start, her breaths coming in rapid and uneven heaves as she clutched at her chest. Her hoof came up to her eyes and felt the wetness there, and then went with lightning speed to check for the warmth and softness next to her - finding the sleeping form of Octavia right where she was supposed to be. Vinyl breathed a short sigh of relief and tried to will her heart to slow down, wondering why the hell that particular dream had produced such a reaction.

Vinyl looked out of the window of their little sleeper car as the world drifted by them, the moon hanging high up in the sky and giving all the world beneath it a ghostly hue. It was late. Late enough that Vinyl really couldn’t tell how late it was by the moon was because she was still so damned tired. So she sank back down next to Octavia and pressed herself up to her as best as she could, but could not convince her body to go back to sleep quite yet.

She hadn’t been to Manehatten since she’d left for Los Pegasus… Shit, had it really only been five years ago? Sheesh. Time sure flew when you weren’t paying attention to it. She’d been following her dreams then, convinced that time and her parents had irrevocably separated her from her sister. It had hurt to leave it behind, but at the time the only thing she had been worried about was staying fed and alive. Sure, she could’ve stayed at her old job… heck, she probably could’ve had quite a future there. But music was a tempting mistress, and one did not forsake her lightly.

And now here she was, stuck on that very same train she’d talked her way onto heading to that very same town where she’d had her view of the world rather rudely uprooted. Still, she wouldn’t be the mare she was today if she hadn’t gotten the shiny scrubbed off of her by that rough-and-tumble town. Vinyl could feel her heartbeat slowly steadying as she closed her eyes and tried to focus on the same sound coming from Octavia. Gentle, soft - rhythmic and calm, just like the mare herself. Vinyl would never admit it to anypony else, but Octavia had done more for her than most knew.

It wasn’t just the love - though that was certainly pretty boss. It was… well, Tavia grounded her. Like, in a good way - not a lame-o way. Taking club drugs, getting pissed every single night, staying out till all hours and crashing hardcore, not eating enough and definitely not eating anything good for her… yeah, Vinyl’d been guilty of leading that kinda life for a long time. Nowadays? She still didn’t sleep THAT much… but she got her sleep more regularly. She still drank - but it wasn’t to get drunk so she’d forget how much it hurt to be alone. She still dabbled a little with the illicit stuff… but now it was to have fun, not to escape.

And as for the eating? Well, where ‘greens’ had once meant dried and packaged peas covered in spicy stuff, now it meant real salads and the like. Good stuff, fulla’ vitamins and shit. And no matter how much she sometimes ached for a bowl of rosemary and thyme ramen noodles in veggie broth, Tavia would bop her on the nose with a spoon and tell her to wait for dinner like a good little filly. It was a new kind of life for Vinyl… and she’d come to like it. Like it a whole, whole lot… but always in the back of her mind, there’d been one piece of unfinished business.

Momma and Poppa.

She’d meant it when she said she didn’t need anything from them ever again. She’d meant it when she’d said the last thing she wanted was to see them ever again. But like to admit it or not, Vinyl had to accept the fact that she had to put this piece of her past to rest. She’d run off into the wild blue yonder seven-teen freakin’ years ago. She hadn’t said a word to either of her parents in the interim - not even when she’d come to live with Tavia. She’d just… avoided them whenever they swung into town. She didn’t want Tavia to get shit on because of her.

Even back then, she’d been trying to think of some way to deal with how she felt about Tavia… and more importantly, about what she would do about her parents. For all Vinyl knew, she’d been declared dead long ago. That could get a little messy with the paperwork, but just about any documents could be fabricated if you were willing to pay the price for it. Now though, all of her problems and worries had vanished into the ether except for that one. Well… okay, not all of her problems, but Vinyl was realistic enough to know that the everyday problems of life were never going to go away. The best you could do was work to keep them from getting out of control.

This one had long since passed the barrier of ‘out of control’ and right into looneyville. She’d been avoiding the subject more and more as the years went by, to the point where she didn’t even want to think about seeing her parents again. But with all that had recently happened… that whole kerfluffle at the Royal Wedding had been one hell of a thing, the kinda event which made a pony step back and look at their life in a new light. And well… Vinyl had come to the conclusion that the time had come to put this chapter of her life to bed.

She wanted to marry Tavi. Wanted to raise a couple of cute fillies with her and build a home and a life with her. But if she didn’t settle this now, it’d hover over that life and those kids as surely as a rain cloud hovered over a picnic, and Vinyl didn’t want that. So she’d written a letter. Actually, she’d tried to write a letter and ended up with a lot of wasted parchment and several broken plates - then, Octavia had written the letter while Vinyl had cleaned up the parchment and glued the plates back together. Vinyl had then admitted she probably should’ve just gotten Tavi to write it in the first place.

The jist of it? She wanted to meet with them. Tell them what’d happened and maybe make some tentative steps towards amends. Maybe it’d work - Vinyl privately doubted that - and maybe it wouldn’t, but she was going to try Celestia damnit. If it all fell apart, at least she could finally turn her back on the whole thing once and for all. She’d actually half hoped they just wouldn’t reply… and then they had. Well, Poppa had - writing back to say he and Momma were going to be in Manehatten and asked if they wanted to meet. It was a nice enough gesture, even if Poppa didn’t know a damn thing about her history with the town.

Vinyl felt her eyelids getting a little heavier, and snuggled up close to Tavia’s back. Whatever happened, at least Octavia was here. She’d make sure Vinyl didn’t fall down too hard… and even if she did, Tavia would be right there to pick her back up again. Which was the way things ought to be.

~~~~~

Morning in Equestria came, just the same as it always did - the sun slowly lifting in the eastern skies and setting the world ablaze with a curtain of light. With the morning came the sharp smell of the sea as the train swung into the last leg of its journey towards the biggest city in all of Equestria - Manehatten. Octavia Piano drank in the sight of the glittering blue sea as the train chugged along the coast, a slight smile curved across her face. It was really just as beautiful as Vinyl had described to her.

Of course, thoughts of that mare immediately drew Octavia’s smile into a small frown as she gently stroked her hoof along Vinyl’s mane. The DJ had her own weird set of hours, and there was something about the look on her face and the way she was still holding tightly onto Octavia’s waist that told Octavia that Vinyl had probably not slept terribly well. Nor had she slept well the previous night, and ever since she’d insisted upon this mad little crusade of hers. Still, Octavia knew the reasons why - even if she thought Vinyl was perhaps putting a bit too much emphasis on such things.

She sighed, still quietly running her hoof through the two-toned mane of the mare who had sent her well-ordered life tumbling down the rabbit hole. How is it one pony can cause so much havoc… and yet I cannot help but be thankful for her? An interesting question for her, to be sure - but still not easily answered. Which was not to say that she had minded some of the changes Vinyl had brought into her life. Just that even now, almost a year since that fateful night at the club, Octavia was still trying to figure out how everything had gotten so tangled.

But now wasn’t the time for that. She was happy for one of the first times in her life, and Vinyl was very distinctly not. There would be time to self-examine later. Right now, the mare she loved needed her and that was what mattered. What am I going to do with you, love? Octavia thought with a mild despair, gently hugging the soft and still slightly too thin Vinyl close to her. You’re so tied up in trying to get all of this behind you, trying to have a clean slate… I fear what mother and father’s foolish thoughtlessness will do to you. How can I possibly protect you from them?

It was a sticky thought. Vinyl clearly just wanted to close the book on the entire affair with their parents and move on to building her life anew. In order to do that, she had become convinced that she had to finally confront them… and tell them what had happened. Why? Octavia did not know. Vinyl had been silent on the subject until pressed, at which point she had said this was ‘something she had to do’ before refusing to speak further.

So it had gone - tickets had been bought, arrangements made, and suitcases packed. Before Vinyl could lose her nerve, Octavia had chivvied her up into the train, and they had set off on the two day ride to Manehatten… and every mile since they’d left Ponyville had been filled with Vinyl becoming more and more agitated. Even now, even as she continued to sleep, Vinyl looked as though she wasn’t resting at all.

Gentle love and worry gripped Octavia’s heart, and so with infinite care she gently pulled the white mare up into her lap, working hard not to disturb her rest. It took a while, but soon enough Vinyl was cradled in Octavia’s hooves and the gray earth pony was gently hugging her close, hoping that perhaps her warmth… or maybe just her presence would lend some comfort to the sister she loved so much. Much to her delight, Vinyl’s face softened a bit and she curled up against Octavia tightly with a gentle sort of smile crossing her face.

“Vinyl…” Octavia said softly, feeling her heart melt a little at the sight. “You’ve given me so much. I can but hope to return the favor.” They were quiet words, but sometimes the quietest words were the ones that mattered the most. Octavia looked up again through the window to see the approaching skyline of the city of Manehatten… and wondered what had happened to Vinyl here, so very long ago.

~~~Manehatten, 17 years ago.~~~

“Excuse me, are you Charity Heart?” Arpeggio piped up with as bright a smile as she could manage. As scared as she was, she knew that her mission to find Tavia would be successful. It had to be - she and her sis’ had promised to stick together forever, and Arpeggio didn’t break promises no matter what. But first, she had to find someplace safe to stay while she searched Manehatten. The city had proven to be much, much larger than Arpeggio had first thought.

The tall and sleek looking earth pony mare that turned to face her was absolutely beautiful. Her bright red mane was super curly and done up in some pretty style, and her cream colored coat reminded Arpeggio of aunty Eleonore. Her eyes were a bright emerald green, and she smiled softly. “Why yes, little filly. I am. What can I do for you?” Her voice was as smooth as butter, and also very pretty. She probably had a beautiful soprano voice to sing with, and Arpeggio instantly liked her.

“Um… Mister Steam Stack said I should come find you.” Arpeggio pawed at the ground with her hoof, kicking up a little non-existent dust from the smooth and polished wooden floors of this strange place she’d wandered into. “An’ Mister Stub said I could find you here! Uh… wherever here is, anyway. Where is here?” Arpeggio peered around the quiet and dimly lit room, the place smelling strongly of perfume like Momma used to wear.

The sleek looking mare laughed softly - it was a very pretty sound. “This is my place of business, little one. So, old steam for brains sent you here?” Her voice changed subtly - it was still as rich and velvety as before, but now it was also kinda gentle and caring. Arpeggio decided she liked the sound of it - especially coming out of such a pretty mare. Charity’s smile was gentle to as she spoke. “So tell me little one, why did you come to Manehatten?”

Arpeggio ducked her head a little, shuffling her hooves. “Momma and Poppa… were gonna hurt me. They said they were gonna ‘deal with me’.” Arpeggio swallowed the lump in her throat, and kept speaking - trying to keep on the bravest face she could in front of this stranger. “An’ they weren’t gonna let me see Tavia again.” Even worse than the threats of harm had been that little addition to the letter. That had been the final straw, the last thing keeping her there - the promise of seeing her beloved sis.

She hadn’t even realized she was starting to cry until a soft silk kerchief brushed away the tears, Miss Charity’s voice firm and certain as she spoke “You need not fear anything, young one. I promise you’ll be safe here from any harm. What is your name then?” The mare gently ran her hoof through Arpeggio’s mane, causing the filly to giggle cutely. “And why are you wearing those silly sunglasses?”

Arpeggio ducked her head a little, feeling unaccountably shy all of a sudden. She’d worked very hard not to say her name since she’d left Ponyville but… She supposed she’d have to tell somepony. “Um, I’m Arpeggio,” she said shyly, kind of tucking one hoof behind the other. “An’ I’m really good at music. And I’m wearing ‘em cuz my eyes have a funny color, and I don’t want Momma or Poppa to find me.” The shades had seemed like such a brilliant disguise back in Ponyville, but she had to admit - in retrospect, they were just a little bit silly. Still, she’d gotten this far with them, hadn’t she?

Miss Charity seemed to find it cute though, since she smiled quite warmly. “Well, Arpeggio - would you mind letting me see your eyes?” Arpeggio felt a shy smile cross her face and with a concentrated little effort of magic she lifted the shades and perched them cooly over her horn. Miss Charity’s eyes widened at the sight of her vividly red eyes, and her smile grew quite wide. “Those are very beautiful eyes, little one, and you shan’t need to hide them here, for as long as you wish to stay. I will make certain nopony harms you here.” Miss Charity winked and offered her hoof to Arpeggio, who took it with a shy smile. Miss Charity giggled at the cute filly, before speaking in a gentle and understanding voice, “Welcome to the Hidden Heart.”

~~~~Manehatten Train Station, Present day~~~~

”Now Arriving at Platform Four - Friendship Express from Ponyville. Now arriving at Platform Four….”

Vinyl Scratch stepped out onto the hard stone and concrete of the Manehatten train station with a feeling of nostalgia. She sucked in a deep breath through her nose, inhaling all the smells of the city as they rushed up to greet her like an old friend. Fried falafel and freshly baked pretzels and cheesy-tomatoey pizza, the sharp tang of the salty sea and the stink of the cargo ship’s steam engines. The smell of sun-baked bricks and the odor of burning street lamps. It all sang to her in a chorus that rose to the heavens with all of the bustle and excitement of the city that never slept - a city she would forever call home.

“Egad! What is that stench?” Octavia exclaimed as she stepped out behind Vinyl, and Vinyl couldn’t conceal the grin as she sucked in another deep lungful of the air. No place in all of Equestria smelled quite like Manehatten. No place livable, anyway. “Oh, goodness. You’re enjoying it, aren’t you?” Octavia half glared at Vinyl, and Vinyl returned to her a grin instead. Octavia sighed expressively, and Vinyl couldn’t restrain her laugh. Poor Tavi, with her refined nose far used to the more sedate Trottingham and the rural Ponyville, was probably going to take a few days to get used to the awesomeness that was Manehatten.

“Course I am,” Vinyl said flippantly, flicking her tail and trotting away from the train. “This is my town. City of a million different stories. If you can make it here? You can make it anywhere.” She grinned as Tavia gave her a confused look and smiled a little. “Why don’t you look around, Tavi?” Vinyl jeered, and at that - Tavia began to actually look around them in earnest, her eyes going a trifle wide as she did so.

Manehatten Grand Station was an impressive sight to be sure. Towering columns of granite carved into the shape of art-deco style ponies and griffons, and walls bearing sweeping murals of the city of Manehatten slowly rising into it’s modern form held up the massive arched glass ceiling panels overhead. Towards one end of the station, massive ships coming from and going to the Griffon kingdoms loaded cargo and passengers alike. At the other end the Friendship Express stood with steam pumping from its stack alongside its brethren trains which ran along the lesser tracks all over the north of Equestria.

Even now, years later, she could remember the awe with which she had beheld the city. Sure - Canterlot had been beautiful, elegant - even divine in its inspiration. But Manehatten? Manehatten was gritty, down to earth, and tough. You knew, right in your soul, that the buildings here hadn’t been forged out of the will of a Goddess; they’d been forged out of the iron-shod hooves, blood, sweat, and tears of average ponies just like yourself. That every street here, no matter how clean or dirty, had been laid down by an average joe. This place was real in a way no other town she’d ever been in was.

Vinyl felt a grin splitting her face as her poise and carriage subtly altered - she hunched her shoulders forward a little and stretched out her neck. She adopted a casual sort of smirk with her grin, and walked in an unhurried sort of way. Everything about her projected that Manehatten ‘attitude’ that the city was famous for inflicting on the poor souls who weren’t ready for it. No matter how worried or unhappy she was about the reasons for being here, she couldn’t deny the surge of strength and pleasure at the fact that at least she’d face the hard words to come on turf she considered her own.

Tavia quickly trotted up alongside her, a quizzical look on her face changing into an amused sort of smile. Unlike Vinyl, Tavia already gave off an air of sophistication that would make sure most of the troublemakers in town wouldn’t give her any guff. Everything about her bearing was already aristocratic enough to send the unconscious signals of one of the many wealthy elites that walked through the town, and might even open up a couple of doors. As they passed through the gates of the Grand Station and into the hustle and bustle of morning in Manehatten, Vinyl snaked out a hoof to wrap it around Tavia’s neck. “Trust me, Tavi. You’re gonna love it here,” Vinyl said with a bright and cheesey grin.

Octavia shook her head, her beautifully long black mane swaying behind her in a way that made Vinyl want to… well, that wouldn’t be appropriate behavior in public. As hoofsteps took them down the Grand Station staircase, Vinyl scanned her eyes over the crowd with practiced ease. She’d been away for seven years now, but the old habits died hard. It was easy to spot the hucksters, the pickpockets, the ne’er-do-well types to avoid, and easier to spot- Vinyl felt her hooves root to the ground for a moment, astonishment hitting her like a sack full of bricks. “Vinyl? What’s wrong?” Octavia asked, the look on her face transitioning from wonder to worry in the space of a heartbeat.

Vinyl shook her head, stirred from her shock by Tavia’s voice, when a silken smooth voice cut Vinyl short from trying to explain. “Probably just surprised to see an old friend come to meet her at the station,” said a mare whose beauty had not flagged a single notch. The enigmatic lady before her looked exactly the same today as she had when they’d first met all those years ago - her mane still the bright red, her coat still creamy and smooth, and her eyes just as sparkling and full of humor and life. Vinyl felt a lump caught in her throat - the memories of that day so many years ago smashing into her with all the force of the train they’d just been on.

Luckily for her, the mare didn’t seem to be much bothered by that - sweeping through the crowd without a single misplaced step to gently wrap a hoof around Vinyl’s neck and tug her in close. For a moment, Vinyl felt like a little filly again - crying out her story to the strange mare that had taken her in without a second thought. Octavia looked confused at first, until Vinyl returned the hug firmly and tightly, holding onto it for just long enough to remember the sweet smell of strawberries and vanilla in that mane, before letting go and coughing in embarrassment. “Uhm… Octavia, this is Charity Heart. She… she took me in when I first ran away from home.” Vinyl felt a sheepish smile cross her face as Mama Charity let out a low and rolling chuckle. “She’s… she’s one hell of a pony,” was all Vinyl could say, gesturing lamely.

Octavia’s face cleared up instantly a moment later, as though she could read through Vinyl’s not-so-elegant words to the heart of the matter. A beautiful smile bloomed on Tavi’s face as she approached a step closer and extended a hoof to Charity, receiving a firm shake in return. “So, this must be the legendary Octavia Piano,” Charity said with a smile as bright as the sun above them. “By Celestia, Two-tone wasn’t kidding when she said you were beautiful and elegant. It is an honor and a pleasure to at last meet you.” Charity bowed over Octavia’s hoof and gave it a little kiss, sending Octavia’s cheeks to blushing. Vinyl couldn’t help but grin… apparently, not even Tavia was immune to Mama Charity’s charms.

“Quite charmed, I assure you,” Tavia said with a slight chuckle of her own. “It appears Vinyl has not told me the whole story of her adventures in Manehatten. She has not mentioned you at all.” And at that, Octavia fixed Vinyl with a slightly angry glare and kept it there, boring into Vinyl’s head with all the heat of a forge fire until Charity shook her head with a soft and melodious laugh. “What?” Octavia queried, her wrath stayed by the amusement of the mare before her.

“Oh, just that I’m happy to see Two-tone kept her promise.” Charity fluttered her eyelashes fetchingly at Octavia before continuing to speak, “I’m a rather private individual, Miss Octavia. I asked Two-tone to keep our time together to ourselves. Still, given that it’s quite obvious you’ve reunited in the way she had long hoped for - I would be happy to shed a little light on things.” Vinyl felt her cheeks suddenly color a very bright red, and before she could stammer anything out, received a stern but very motherly gaze from Mama Charity that immediately shut her up.

Octavia stared in astonishment at that byplay, her jaw dropping just a little. “I do not believe it,” Octavia said with wide eyes. “I did not think there was anypony other than Auntie Eleonore that could do that to Vinyl.” Then she paused, her mouth turned down a little in thought. “Which brings to mind… why do you keep calling her Two-tone? And how did you know we were going to be here?” Vinyl had to admit she was curious about the second part herself. She certainly hadn’t called Charity. She had been intending to drop in on her own to pay her respects and say hello. Who had told her they were going to arrive?

The answer to that came a moment later in the form of a brash and rough voice, much darkened by years of smoking and the distinct smell of a pipe stuffed with Trottingham tobacco and burning merrily. On reflection, Vinyl would later wonder why she hadn’t spotted the column of smoke rising up from the crowd. “That’s because I told her, girl.” Octavia’s jaw dropped in total shock at the sound of the voice, and Vinyl felt a little vindicated as a dark, dark-blue coated earth pony strode out of the crowd wearing her tightly tailored suit coat and dress in a brilliant blood red velvet with a spotless white cravat beneath her chin. Between her slightly aged lips was the curved pipe billowing out smoke like a factory firestack and a twinkle in her slightly beady eyes. “Git yer jaw shut, girl - else you’ll start attracting flies,” The older unicorn mare snapped, and Octavia’s jaw shut instantly.

Vinyl felt a warmth surge in her heart which hadn’t been there ever since she’d sent the letters to momma and poppa.“Hiya, Aunt Eleonore,” Vinyl said and then ran pell mell over to the older mare to embrace her tightly. The older earth pony hugged her right back, with just as much strength as ever. “Should’a known you’d show up.”

~~~~~The Hidden Heart, Manehatten~~~~~

“ ‘Ere ya go luv. Spot o’ oolong tea and a tray o’ fresh cheese crumpets,” the perky pegasi who had called herself Li’l Strumpet said with a happy charm, then whisked away with the tray before Octavia could get another word in. Still, the tea smelled absolutely marvelous and so did the freshly baked treats alongside them - which Octavia shamelessly grabbed and took an experimental nibble out of, the bright cheddar flavors of her youth exploding into her mouth and causing her to instantly relax.

Of course, the smell of Aunty Eleonore’s pipe smoke was doing that all by itself. It was rich and full and made Tavia itch for a cello in her hooves. Her instrument was packed along with the rest of their bags nearby, but hurriedly pulling the thing out in the middle of a conversation would be rude. With fortune, Aunty Eleonore would make some time for Tavia to pester her for more insights into her incredible skill.

For the moment though, they sat in the middle of a gently bustling room where ponies laughed, ate, drank, and worked in the strange place they’d found themselves in. There was a big stage at one end of the room, flanked by old style oil-lantern lights and a deep red velvet curtain that hung from the ceiling. On stage, a pair of wise-cracking pegasi - both of them missing a wing, Tavia noted with a wide eyed astonishment - were practicing a comedy routine much to the amusement of a large group of fillies and colts, none of whom were older than thirteen years old.

All around them, worn wooden tables polished to a deep and dark brown were occupied with ponies of every tribe eating breakfast or socializing in some way. Lists were being passed around from table to table, and chores were just getting underway - and all the while, a strong undercurrent of gentle love and acceptance permeated the air. None of the ponies in the room lacked some kind of oddity about themselves, if not outright disability. Unicorns with damaged horns, earth ponies with limps, pegasi with wing problems of one kind or another. It was both incredibly sad… and also incredibly moving.

“So like I was saying,” growled Aunty Eleonore in her thick-as-molasses Trottingham accent, interrupting Octavia’s line of thought. “I got a letter from my damnfool son a couple of days ago saying you’d finally popped yer head above water and wanted a little palaver.” Aunty Eleonore took a deep suck from her pipe and blew a pair of fine smoke rings high up into the air, much to Vinyl’s apparent amusement.

“Surprised the hell out of me, lemmie tell ya!” continued her aunt, a twinkle in her eye. “Thought he’d stuffed that head of his so far up his ass he couldn’t see th’ sunrise! But the boy sounded genuinely concerned for ya, an’ he asked me - Asked me! First time in damn near two decades the boy has asked for somethin’ from me, and damn polite doin it too - to meet’cha at the train station. An’ when I decided to call upon my old friend Charity here…” Aunty Eleonore eyeballed the mare next to her, who was smiling in a very pretty and mysterious way. “Th’ age defying witch that she is, an she tells me she knows a certain’ white unicorn filly who ran like a damnfool…” Then she took another deep puff of the fragrant smoke before stabbing the pipe towards Vinyl. “Which reminds me - Why’n’a hell didn’t ya come t’me, Arpeggio? You know I woulda’ given you a place t’stay.”

Arpeggi- Vinyl sighed deeply, pulling off her shades and rubbing at her eyes for a moment in sheepish shame. “I wasn’t thinking real clearly at the time, Aunty. To be honest, by the time I thought about it, I was sure they’d just take me away from you like they always did before.” She gestured around her, a gentle smile appearing on her face. “Besides… this place was home to me, by then.” Her eyes traveled across the room and Octavia couldn’t help but feel a little warmer knowing that, at the very least, Vinyl had not spent the intervening years completely alone.

“Don’t pester her, Ellie,” Charity Heart admonished, focusing her gaze on Octavia and causing her to swallow a little. There was something about that smoky look on Charity’s face that made Octavia feel… well, sort of how Vinyl made her feel when they were in one another’s hooves. All heated and- Octavia stomped firmly on that thought, trying to focus on the conversation. Charity giggled softly then, a sound that was instantly appealing to the ear. “Oh she’s such a darling Two-tone. You simply must let me try her.” Octavia felt her jaw drop for the fourth time since they’d gotten off the train, and fortunately Vinyl facehoofed in response to that statement - else Octavia might have gotten quite cross with her.

“Lay off it, Mama Charity,” Vinyl - or was it Vinyl? - muttered softly, giving Octavia a pained look. “Two-tone was my name when I was working here. See?” She pointed to her musical note cutie mark. “Two notes became Two-tone.” Vinyl grinned at Octavia for a moment, her bright red eyes practically glowing. “Not the first name I took on here either, but you wear a lot of hats when you do the kinda work I did.” Octavia blanked out for a moment, as Vinyl went silent - obviously waiting for her to cotton on, but Octavia just kept drawing blanks. Vinyl coughed once, twice, then snorted softly. “Sex work, Tavia. Exotic dancing, teases, the occasional stage show and more physical stuff.”

For a moment, Octavia couldn’t process that. Then the realization hit her hard, and she felt a lump drop itself hard into her throat. Arpeggio - My little Arpeggio - working as a prostitute? Octavia was not so naive to the ways of the world to think that everypony ended up in a perfect career for themselves. Life could throw a lot at a pony - and sometimes, it overwhelmed everything else. Equestria was not the idyllic paradise it was often painted as - there were always those who would fall between the cracks of society as a whole… but this, this she did not expect.

Luckily, Vinyl seemed to realize her distress - reaching over to gently squeeze her shoulder. “Hey, don’t stress over it Tavi. Nopony made me do anything I didn’t want to do.” She smiled a little over at Charity, who smiled back in that gentle and motherly way of hers. “I started on the piano here, actually. Playing music for the dancers and the other stage shows, but… well I was always kinda scared somepony would hear me and realize who I was - so I started sneaking into the other parts of the club looking for something else I could do.”

Charity giggled again, and even in her state of shock, Octavia couldn’t help but feel a little charmed by the sound. “Poor Two-tone snuck into my room while I was… entertaining a customer.” Vinyl, bless her heart, turned a beat red color in her cheeks and looked away, even as Charity eyeballed her with a sly smile. “Was quite the shock when I found her hiding in my closet when I was cleaning up. I had to explain why the nice stallion was spanking me, and why I seemed to be enjoying it.”

That got a bark of laughter out of Aunty Eleonore, and Vinyl slowly began to sink behind the table edge, her face still as red as a tomato. “So I explained a few facts of life to her and… well, Two-tone could never be persuaded to keep her nose out of something when she wanted to learn about it.” Charity chuckled brightly, sipping at her tea. “I eventually caught her getting double teamed by those pegasi brothers and… well, the rest became history.” Charity shrugged her shoulders with a sly smile as Vinyl sank completely behind the table, and Octavia had to admit it was kind of cute how embarrassed she was getting over this… even though Octavia was still trying to wrap her head around it.

Vinyl had often said she’d done some less than savory things in Manehatten but… Octavia had simply assumed she’d been a thief, or perhaps had worked as some kind of servant. But this? It shone an entirely new light on… everything. Dear Celestia, how could I have not seen it? Oh, Octavia did not doubt Vinyl’s love for her. Not any longer - they had both been through far too much now for that poisonous little thought. But Vinyl’s nightmares now suddenly had context, her constant worries about Octavia’s happiness now cast in a far more understandable light. Her insanely stubborn, self willed drive to protect and aid Octavia from the horrors she herself had experienced…

It was like that single dose of information set off a chain reaction in her brain. Obviously logical conclusion followed an even more horrifyingly logical conclusion in her mind, over and over and over again. Each facet of her beloved sister’s actions and personality now explained by this single, seminal event. She had barely been a teenager! She had never known anything about the world outside of the protective shell their parents had built around her! She’d been all alone and scared and unhappy and desperate and - “Octavia Piano!” thundered a voice almost right in her ear, sending her jumping in surprise out of her chair and damn near crashing to the ground, saved only by her hoof grabbing firmly onto the arm of the thing.

Her head swiveled towards the source of the voice, only to find Aunty Eleonore giving her a half glare behind the haze of the pipe smoke. Vinyl and Charity were nowhere to be seen, and Octavia felt panic race through her heart. Where had she gone? Had Octavia been so wrapped up in her thoughts that she’d - “If you keep panicking like that, girl, I’m going to rap your hooves with a ruler and send you to sit in the corner for an hour!” Aunty Eleonore once again cut through her thoughts like a hot knife with her words, now more amused than angry.

Out of pure reflex, Octavia sat up straight, reached for a non-existent cello and immediately said, “Yes ma’am, sorry ma’am,” before she could even form a coherent thought. Old habits really did die hard, or so it seemed. Octavia felt a momentary confusion when her cello was nowhere to be found, only to realize exactly what had happened. “Ah… Confound it, Aunty! You promised not to do that to me anymore!” Octavia huffed out, her moment of panic forgotten in the much more critical moment of sheer embarrassment.

Aunty Eleonore smirked at her, pulling out the worn and curved pipe to stab the stem at Octavia firmly, in the manner she always did when she was intending to make a point. “I promised not to do that to you so long as you behaved like a grownup. Since you have decided to act like a silly headed filly, I shall treat you like one.” She clamped her teeth back down on the pipe and gave it several impressive looking puffs before continuing to speak. “You’ve grown remarkably since I sent you out into the world, Octavia - but you still have much to learn about how the other half lives, I see.”

Octavia blinked, wondering why her thoughts felt slow and murky - understanding rather late that once again, Aunty Eleonore was trying to teach her something, and she simply wasn’t keeping up. Her aunt sighed and gestured with her pipe, a thin wisp of smoke wafting out into the still bustling and busy room. “Look at them, Octavia. They’re the ones our society has forgotten. The infirm, the imperfect, the lost. The ones who live far below the salt, who make their way in the world whatever way they can.” Her aunt looked distant and sad for a moment, and Octavia wondered what sort of memories this place was stirring up. “I was so surprised to find out our little Arpeggio ended up here, I forgot that I never educated you in these sorts of things. You were too young, I told myself - and my damnfool son and his damnfool wife would have used it as an excuse to horn me out of the family regardless.”

“Aunty… what on earth are you speaking of?” Octavia began slowly, looking to where her Aunt was gesturing. For a moment, Octavia detached herself from worries about Vinyl and tried to pay attention. All around her, the ponies she’d given only a casual glance before came into focus. Octavia - long accustomed to the act of spotting the relative social status of any given pony on sight - began to absorb some of what Aunty had just told to her.

There on the stage - a blue coated unicorn mare, just out of her teens and rigid with aristocratic bearing. She also bore a number of very fine scars around her neck and close to her horn that spoke of either some horrific accident… or abuse. Yet she was smiling, if only a little, and slowly letting go of that unconscious arrogance to laugh and go through the motions of a dance routine with the other ponies.

There, behind the bar - a very young earth pony colt with a bright orange coat was quietly counting bottles behind the bar and checking the level of liquor in each one. He didn’t look like he was older than one of the children in Cheerilee’s class. He had a grubby, heavily underfed sort of look but seemed cheerful enough as he went about his task - carefully measuring each bottle and then scribbling the information down on a chalk-slate. There were no obvious signs of harm, but the way he moved - the way he scurried - spoke of a pony who feared being noticed by others.

And there, sitting quietly at a table was an older powder blue coated pegasus mare with a pair of large bells for a cutie-mark. Next to her was a little pegasus filly with teary eyes and a wild, flyaway mane as they spoke gently to one another. The little filly had a bindle which she had attached to a stiff tree limb that leaned nearby, filled with all the sorts of things the young often thought of when running from home. A favorite toy, a photograph, a few juice boxes, and… “Oh,” Octavia voiced softly, the meaning of the scenes around her coming into focus.

“Mm,” Aunty Eleonore agreed, returning the pipe to her mouth with a nod of satisfaction. Eleonore had always been approving when Octavia didn’t need to have something outright explained to her… even if she needed to have her head pointed in the right direction. “So before you let that fine mind run away with you, Octavia, you’d best consider the reasons why something happened the way it did before you make judgements.” Aunty rapped her pipe on the table decisively, signalling an end to that particular lesson. “Now, stiffen your spine, girl. My son will be here soon and we can’t have you moping about like a filly without a prom date.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Octavia said primly and took a moment to focus on checking her appearance before… “Wait.” Octavia’s brain crashed to a halt, her eyes widening for a moment as the thought finally penetrated through her haze of self-realization. “Father is coming here!?”

Author's Note

Because you guys have been so patient, here is Part 1 of this story. Part 2 is nearly completed and will be published when it is. Further parts will be pubbed as finished, with no guarantee for publish dates. I know this is a little different than my usual publishing MO, but I thought you guys had waited long enough.

Sex tag is for future parts. But as anyone who's read this series knows, I put in the sex when it matters in the story.

Scherzo

Author's Note

Not going to make you guys wait for me to finish Sonata Rondo. I hope to have that done... soon. Maybe tonight, even.

Scherzo

~~~~~Vinyl’s Room, That evening.~~~~~

As night fell upon the city of Manehatten, so too did the Hidden Heart rouse itself from slumber for the night of entertainment to come. Mama Charity had graciously offered Vinyl her old room for the night, and given that there was nowhere else in Manehatten she’d rather be staying, Vinyl had readily accepted. Besides, it would give her a chance to talk to Tavia, who had been incredibly quiet since Poppa had shown up.

That alone would have been worrying, but the fact that Tavia had been walking away from Red with a sort of determined look on her face hadn’t helped. Vinyl could only imagine what Red Velvet had said to her, and was hoping this whole thing wasn’t going to turn into one giant clusterbuck. Actually, it’s probably already a clusterbuck. Vinyl mentally sighed, flopping down on the faintly spicy smelling sheets, attesting to the normal business that would have been going on in here were this any other evening.

Vinyl was suddenly very glad for the thick, well insulated walls that separated herself from the usual goings on in the club, as memories of the activities that went on here flooded back into her mind. She only hoped Octavia wouldn’t get too scandalized before she reached the room, but given what was probably already going on out there, she didn’t have much hope of that.

The door swung open quietly a few moments later, and Octavia slipped in. “By Celestia’s mane, what in the name of goodness is this place!?” she exclaimed, leaning against the door as though bracing it from any of the wildness outside coming in. Vinyl rolled to her belly and couldn’t help but grin at her beloved, who was giving Vinyl a startled sort of look that soon narrowed into a more suspicious look. “This is one of those things where I really do not wish to know the answer, isn’t it?”

Vinyl stifled a giggle, shaking her head slowly. “Jeeze, Tavia. I thought you’d have picked it up by now. It’s a burlesque club and brothel, darlin’.” She paused as Tavia’s eyed widened just a fraction. “Course, I’m pretty sure it qualifies as a fetish club too, but that’s kinda beside the point. Mama Charity has to keep this place in bits somehow, and there ain’t a lot of better ways to do it.” Vinyl tucked her hooves under her chin and rested her head for a moment.

Watching Tavia work her way through something shocking to her sensibilities was always kinda fascinating. Her face made all sorts of interesting expressions ranging from horrified to pitying, but tonight Vinyl was looking for something else. “ ‘Sides, we got other stuff to talk about, I think.” There was something about how those words affected Tavia that worried Vinyl pretty badly.

Tavia’s face settled into a mask of calm and determination, a look Vinyl instantly recognized from Tavia’s earlier attempts at hiding her real emotions. Having observed her sister doing this before, spotting the signs was as easy as remixing electric guitar to her. “Ah… yes, I spoke with Red Velvet earlier, Vinyl. It was quite apparent just how deep her feelings for you ran, and…” Octavia hesitated over her words, giving Vinyl enough time to feel her shock. “And I think we ought to have a discussion about-”

“Whoa, whoa whoa!” Vinyl burst out, practically launching herself off the bed and toward Octavia. “Hang on a minute! Hold the bucking show, what in the world you talkin’ about, Tavia?” Octavia’s words died in her throat, her eyes widening and her hooves backing up a step and bumping her into the doorway of the room. The shock on her face was quite clear, and Vinyl felt an absurd bit of anger at it. “Octavia Piano, just what do you mean how I felt about her?” There was a degree of anger in her voice, despite Vinyl’s best attempt to squash it.

And boy did Tavia not take that terribly well. “Oh, come now, Arpeggio!” she snapped, her tone flaring with heat. “You are simply not that physically comfortable with very many ponies! Blessed Celestia, unless you’re crawling all over them for intimacy, you won’t even accept a hug from-” Octavia’s mouth snapped shut and a look of mortified horror flashed over her face.

Vinyl felt her gut sink into her hooves, not even bothering to hide the coldness in her tone. “You ever think there might be a reason for that?” It was widely believed she was really, really physically comfortable with other ponies. It was a good sort of reputation to have in her field, but the truth was there hadn’t been that many. Oh, she’d had a lot of sex over the years, that was true. But there was sex, and there was comfortable intimacy. “You think there might be a reason why I choose to only let a few ponies get close to me like that?” she continued, advancing another step and forcing Octavia to press her back up against the door.

Viny took a deep breath, and exhaled it. She wasn’t going to let her temper ruin what she had with Tavia, no matter how pissed she might be. “Yeah, Red Velvet means a lot to me, Tavi. She’s a hell of a pony, and she’ll always hold a special little place in my heart.” Vinyl kept her eyes fixed to Octavia’s, determined to drive home how she felt right then. “She was there for me when I was alone and scared, and both her and Momma Charity showed me a love our parents never did.”

She flung up a hoof and shoved it right into Octavia’s mouth, forcing it closed just before it could squeak out a word. “Octavia, shut up and bucking listen to me.” Vinyl growled, and thank Celestia she did, nodding meekly back at Vinyl. “I told you before, and I’m gonna tell you again. You’re the only pony I fucking love, Octavia Piano. You’re the pony I want to marry, you’re the pony I wanna spend the rest of my life with, raise a coupla foals and grow old and silly together with.” Vinyl slammed her hoof into the door next to her, dropping her head and her voice at the same time.

She had to be calm about this. She had to keep her emotions in check. “Red’ll always be special to me, Tavia. So will Charity and a lot of other ponies. I can’t stop how I feel about them any more than I can stop how I feel about you.” Vinyl took in a deep breath and exhaled it again, calming slowly. “I don’t care what Red might’a said to you. We’re an us now, Tavia. That means we stick together, remember? No regrets.”

Vinyl peeked up and half smiled at Octavia, whose face was a mask of conflicting emotions ranging from shock to anger to sappy love. Vinyl lifted her hoof to take Octavia’s chin and lift it up so she might look right into those gorgeous eyes. “Tavi…” she began softly, wishing not for the first time that she could read Octavia’s mind, if only to make moments like this easier. “If you really, truly, personally want to start somethin’ up with Red… Hey, I’m not gonna complain.” Vinyl grinned a little as she said it, trying to inject some much needed humor into the situation.

Octavia stared at her and sighed dramatically. “I swear to Celestia, you are an incorrigable pervert, Vinyl!” And a grey hoof came up and smacked her upside the head, with Octavia’s mouth set in a moue of anger. “And you’re also an impossible mare to live with sometimes, and…” The hoof came up and smacked her on the other side of the head, but Vinyl never let the grin waver until Octavia finally cracked with another sigh. “And I am so very confused about everything that’s happened today, and I think we need to sit down and talk with one another about this.”

Vinyl nodded and gently took Octavia’s hoof in her own, pulling her toward the bed. “Okay. First thing, I wanna apologize about… all of this.” She waved her hoof airily at the room and the club in general as she planted her butt on the edge of the bed. “Charity really did ask me not to bring it up. This place is kept secret for a lot of reasons, Tavia.” Octavia soon followed suit, sitting with much more primness than Vinyl had shown before fixing her with a slightly icy stare.

“Vinyl, I need to know exactly what is going on in this place,” Tavia stated as boldly as she’d ever said anything before in her life, and Vinyl nodded minutely. Just before the night had come, she’d made sure that spilling the beans had been cool with Charity. Of course, the next bit… “And I need to know what happened between you and Red Velvet.” Vinyl did wince at that one, but she nodded again.

“Okay, well…” Vinyl began hesitantly, and then sighed. In for a bit… “I’ll tell ya what Charity told me. The Hidden Heart is a place for abused or unwanted foals. Runaway fillies and colts come from every corner of Equestria to Manehatten.” She crossed her hooves over her belly and looked straight at Octavia, trying to keep her voice as calm as she could. “There’s a lotta ponies out there who don’t treat their kids real well, Tavia. It ain’t always intentional either. But Charity takes in any youngin’ who’s deformed or is being abused, or just plain can’t take care of themselves. Anypony in trouble can come here, and Charity’ll give ‘em a new name and hide ‘em.”

Octavia looked as predictably shocked as Vinyl would have thought, and half smiled. “The problem is keeping the place running is expensive, and she can only take in so many who can’t do work just yet. So anypony who’s got a talent in somethin’ is expected to use it to contribute. Some of us were good as performers, and others were good at… other stuff.” She sighed and turned her head away then, knowing what Tavia would be saying after this next line. “She keeps the local muckity mucks from nosing in by selling ‘em favors. Nopony here does anything they’re not willing to do, but there ain’t many here who wouldn’t give a little bit of themselves to help the rest.”

Octavia’s voice came a moment later, bursting out in shock. “But… Vinyl that’s… Insane! Illegal! And quite possibly-” Then Octavia stopped, and Vinyl turned her head in confusion. Octavia’s hooves were pressed over her mouth and she looked oddly thoughtful amidst all of that shock and disbelief. “Goddess, so that’s why,” she half whispered, looking up at Vinyl. “That’s why you didn’t come back to the piano… why you couldn’t play for so long.”

Vinyl nodded a little, amazed that Tavia had caught on so fast. “Like I said, we all pitched in. But I was so scared of being caught, I had to find something else I could do to help. Enter Red Velvet.” She shrugged her shoulders a little, feeling a ghost of a real smile cross her face. “It wasn’t much to jump from loving her as a friend to loving her in other ways. I was pretty ignorant already about what sex was in the first place, and Red was all too eager to teach me.” She sighed softly, rubbing at her head and tossing her shades onto the side table.

Maybe it was pointless, but she had to say it anyway. “Don’t judge Red too hard, Tavia. She was…” She paused… did she have any right to tell Tavi about this? Red gave me that right when she horned in on us. “She was brought up as a… special kind of servant, Tavia. Born to it, quite literally, for some high and mighty noble. She’s never really known any other life.” Vinyl winced a little at telling Tavia that, but… Well, sometimes you had to do the hard stuff.

Octavia looked dumbly fascinated as Vinyl continued to speak, rubbing at her shoulder in discomfort. Even now, the story sickened her every time she thought about it. “Charity told me once that sex was pretty much the same thing as love to Red. So… so I tried to give her more than that. I was losing hope that I’d ever see you again, and I…” She stopped and shook her head faintly, lowering her head. How could she say it?

“You made promises,” Octavia said softly, a gentle hoof touching Vinyl’s shoulder a moment later. Vinyl leaned into that touch, and a moment later she could feel the warm body of Octavia leaning against her. “You… said you’d be back, didn’t you?” Vinyl nodded, not wanting to admit just how low and how weak she’d gotten back then. But it was important to be honest, especially with your very special somepony.

Especially when it was as important as this. “Yeah. I figured it’d only be a couple of years till I had a career good enough to make it in Manehatten. Then I started getting a line on you, and…” Vinyl snapped the words off, closing her eyes and taking a shuddering breath before continuing. “I lost track of what I’d been doing. My career was a lot harder to launch than I thought it would be, and I got distracted trying to nail down word of where you were. Things got bad by the time I found out, and…” she gestured helplessly. “The rest is history and all that jazz.”

The silence that came after that was a little comforting. At least Tavia wasn't jumping to any immediate conclusions. “Oh, Vinyl,” Octavia said with an exasperated smile. “You lovable idiot. “ She reached over and smacked Vinyl upside the head, rolling her eyes as she did so. “I swear, you’re worse than Bon Bon when you get your silly head wrapped around something.” Well, that was technically true, but she didn't have to hit her.

Tavia plopped her butt down next to her own and wrapped a foreleg around her shoulder. “I suppose I cannot blame her for wanting you so badly, then. You are quite the catch.” She was quiet, but it wasn’t the dangerous sort of quiet. It was more like the sad sort of quiet. And she was making her blush too, the scamp. “As much as I love you, it still hurts to know I have to take you away from somepony else to have you myself.” Yeah, that was all too much like Tavia.

Vinyl sighed. She had to agree the last part sucked seriously bad. “Red’s not a bad pony, Tavia. Just…” Just what, Vinyl? Just somepony you made a promise to and now you gotta break it? She tapped her hooves together, trying to think of… of something. Of anything. Red deserved better than this, dammit...

“You should go talk to her.” Octavia sounded firmer than before, and when Vinyl looked up she was giving her that stern look that Aunty Eleonore had mastered a long time ago. “She needs to hear it from you, Vinyl. And then we…” She took a deep breath and exhaled. “We need to go see Mother.”

That… Vinyl didn’t want to do that. Ohhhh no. Meeting Dad had been hard enough on her, and he’d actually given enough of a shit to come and find out she was alive. Mom had bailed on her, and that was that. But… “You got somethin’ you need to tell her, Tavi? Because I don’t.” It was hard to be blunt like that, but she had to make sure.

Octavia nodded. She even looked all stubborn and cute about it, and... Damnit. “Aright, aright…” she grunted and threw her hooves up. “We’ll need to go through Canterlot anyway. If she ain’t there though, we’re not stickin’ around to wait her out. I wanna get home and plan the wedding now that Dad and Aunty are comin’.” The rest could be dealt with later. She wanted to be done with this now, especially after this crap with Red. Crap she shouldn't have had to deal with, but Vinyl supposed it was just that kinda day.

Octavia touched her hoof, and she sucked in a deep breath. She wasn’t going to let anger get the better of her, she wasn’t going to go off on a tear… she was gonna deal with it and then get over it so she could go back to her life. Why’n the blue hell did I think this was a good idea again? Oh yeah, cuz I wanted to put the kibosh on my old life… An look what ghost I conjured up because of it. Teach me to try and solve shit with words.

Then a kiss touched her cheek, and she turned to face the mare of her life. “Vinyl…” Tavia’s voice broke on the word, but only a little. “Your heart was wholly in the right place to try and make amends with Poppa and Mum. You couldn’t have known our travels would bring us here, either.” Two gentle hooves cupped her cheeks and her vision was filled with Tavia’s bright eyes. “Don’t allow that good heart of yours to go hard because things have gone a touch sour on us.”

She opened her mouth to rebut that ‘a touch’ business, but it snapped shut at the pleading look in Tavia’s eyes. “Ugh… Why are you so cute!?” Vinyl snapped in mild frustration, wanting nothing more in that moment than to punch a pillow. But instead she grasped Octavia’s shoulders and pulled her close, pressing her head against Tavia’s. “This isn’t fair, Tavi. Not to you, not to her, and not to me.” She knew she was just grousing now, and that the crap she was bitching about was pointless to bitch about.

Tavia’s smile said she knew it too. “This from the mare who constantly lectures me on the absurdity of fairness.” Her voice teased her gently, and Vinyl felt her cheeks flush. Okay, so maybe that line had been a bit… dumb. “Vinyl, we can but do our best to deal with the hoof life has dealt us.” Her hooves came up to ruffle her already ruffled mane, and Tavia kissed her horn sweetly. “Now go deal with your old marefriend. I shall discuss my strategies with Aunty.”

Vinyl nodded, and tried to stifle the pain in her gut. ‘Dealing’ with Red Velvet wasn’t gonna be as simple as all that. Probably.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Hidden Heart was as raucous as she remembered it. Young waitresses scurried about the working floor, flouncing tails up at customers and delivering food and drink with a remarkable efficiency. Then again, that was a job she’d done once upon a time, though she could never remember looking quite so… flirty. Well. Okay, maybe she’d been a little flirty, but still.

The air exploded with laughter as the Gagsworth brothers hit the deck with a bit of their trademark slapstick. Li’l Gagsworth had just given his brother Biggun a face full of cream pie and sent him tumbling to the stage. A classic that never failed to draw guffaws from the crowd, and that usually meant they were about to lead into a rapid-fire insult showdown.

But Vinyl had no time to enjoy their work, because somewhere around here Red Velvet would be plying her trade. Unless she was on stage tonight, which would be a trifle awkward. Wait. Had she just thought the word ‘trifle’? Okay, she seriously needed to stop hanging around Tavia so damn much, she was starting to talk like her. Ugh. She needed to go on tour or something.

Damnit, Vinyl, focus. Where was Red? She wasn’t tending bar or working the tables. She could be doing hoofdances, but… nah. She probably wasn’t that bored on a Saturday night. So that meant she was either already upstairs with a customer, or… Crap. That meant she’d have to go find Mama and get tonight’s schedule.

Working through the crowd wasn’t too hard, but what was a little tougher was dodging the familiar faces. Sure, a few performers had come out of the Hidden Heart clubs to make names for themselves but… Well, the last thing she needed was to start scandalizing Tavia by having her old life interfere with her new one. Especially when she recognized a coupla rather enthusiastic old favorites that knew a few things about how to use their stallionhood’s and… Gah! Focus, Vinyl! She nearly slapped herself.

Instead, she focused on finding Mama Charity. There was Bluebell and Sweet Nips, and… Ah! There she was, working the door and glad-hoofing some glitzy visiting noblepony. Her eyes sparkled and she laughed at some stupid joke, grinning even though the stallion had turned his nose up at her. Vinyl always admired Mama’s ability to work with the rich set, much as she stunk at it herself. How she managed not to slap the shit out of those jerks…

Vinyl’s hooves had carried her to the door, and she tried not to bounce on her hooves in nervousness. The last thing she wanted to do was confront Red Velvet after she got pent up on stage. There was no telling what that mare might be capable of when she got worked up after a show. “Psst.” She hissed, trying to catch Mama’s attention while keeping one eye on stage. Li’l Gagsworth had broken out the breakaway furniture, which meant they were almost done with their act. “Psssst!” She hissed harder, and finally Mama turned an eye towards her.

“Ah, excuse me a moment, Lord Lemon.” She cooed in a silky voice before slipping over to Vinyl with an arched eyebrow. She took one long look at her before sighing faintly. “You’re going to give Red the bad news, I take it.”

Vinyl wanted to be surprised, but she really wasn’t. “Yeah.” She muttered and almost kicked at the floor. Why on earth should she feel bad about this? Red, of anypony in the world, ought to have known the score… Maybe it was because… well...

Before she could finish the thought, Mama Charity shook her head. “She’s going on stage after one of the new girls does a little drama routine.” She turned and eyeballed the crowd. “You’ll have about ten minutes. I’ll see if I can buy you an extra ten with an impromptu farce.” She paused, then touched Vinyl’s shoulder. “Two-tone… if you wanna slip out tonight, I wouldn’t blame you. Neither would she.”

Maybe she wouldn’t… but Vinyl’d blame herself. “Nah.” She shook her head and half smiled. “I gotta be a grown up now, Mama. Even if it sucks balls.” She stuck her tongue out and Mama Charity giggled faintly. “Seriously, though. I love her, Mama. I can’t not tell her.” She huffed out a breath and looked towards the stage where the red curtain and fallen and the crowd was milling about. “She deserves t’ know.”

Mama Charity squeezed her shoulder. “They know to let you in back stage, Two-Tone. Try to stop by and give me a hug before you leave though, okay?” And then she was gone, doing the job she’d done for as long as Vinyl could remember her doing. Who was gonna take over when she passed on? A question for another day, maybe. But Vinyl really, really didn’t want to think too hard about a world without Mama Charity in it.

Finding her way backstage was all too easy, even in the thick crowd of a busy night. She’d done it so many times, it was almost like a reflex. Round about the central staircase, up to the second floor and past the hidden door in the break room. Down the interior staircase, watch out for that bum third-to-last step, and there you were.

The smell was deep and musty. Old curtains and sweat, sweet cider sitting in barrels for the performers, cloth and greasepaint, makeup and silk. The dim light of backstage was a home to her unlike anywhere else had been and just standing there brought back memories of a simpler time that seemed all too far away. Familiar faces grown older smiled at her as they passed by, and the whole place seemed to whisper welcome home, into her ears. It would be so bloody easy to slip back into Two Tone’s hooves. Piano performance in ten, Two-tone…

But that was another life and another time.

She skittered behind the curtains, watching the younger foals set up for the dramatic show. Looked like some play on the usual romance schtick. Something to keep the fillies happy when the colts were whistling at Red. Speaking of Red, finding her was just a matter of… figuring out where they’d moved her dressing room. Huh. She’d loved this spot just offstage. She liked to come out as fresh as she could manage.

A quick glance from side to side showed the signs of time marched on: New names on the doors, new stars on the ascendant. But Red really wasn’t that much older than she’d been when she got here, was she? Fortunately, there just wasn’t that much real estate to go searching in, and finding Red tucked away in the corner might’ve been a surprise if it hadn’t been her dressing room that Red had moved into.

Her cutie mark was even still painted on the door, same place she’d left it. Just barely kneehigh and a little messy. Vinyl facehoofed. Red wasn’t gonna make this easy on her, obviously. She knocked twice, then shoved the door open. No shenanigans allowed during work hours back here, and Vinyl was starting to get a little annoyed at how hard Red was tugging at her heartstrings. The smell of the room hit her like a cartload of Rarity’s perfume, and she nearly hacked herself silly fighting past it.

Red was perched on her stool and turned to face her with a look equal parts hopeful and sad. For a few long moments, Vinyl couldn’t say a word. Oh, she tried alright. She hemmed and hawed and huffed and puffed, but nothing was coming out that could be reasonably called ‘words.’ She bit at her lip after a few moments, Red’s hooves folded politely across her lap. She wasn’t going to help Vinyl say it, which was both good and bad.

Finally, she shoved the door shut behind her and glared into one corner. Maybe not looking at her would make it easier. “I’m sorry, Red.” She muttered, barely distinct enough to be considered coherent. But breaking the silence made the rest a little easier. “I’m sorry things didn’t work out the way I’d planned ‘em an’ I’m sorry I gotta be the one who leaves you at the…” A hoof pressed into her lips, silencing her.

Red’s eyes were… red. She was half smiling, a touch of wetness gathered about her eyes. “You two look awful cute together, ‘peggio.” Her voice shook a little, but she was smiling for real at least. “I just couldn’t let it go without givin’ it one more shot, you know? I’m sorry if your mar-” Her voice broke on the next word, and she swallowed and kept going. “If I got a bit frisky with your Marefriend. I’ll go apologize tonight, okay? W-we’re still gonna be friends, right?”

Her hooves were shaking, and it was all Vinyl could do to not hug her and tell her it was gonna be okay and they’d figure something out and- No, Vinyl. But she did hug her. “Yeah.” She muttered, trying to give a very special somepony some kind of comfort, somehow. “Yeah, we always will be, Red. You’re still an awesome somepony.” It wasn’t easy to talk for her, how bad must Red be feeling? “You need some time?” She quietly asked, touching a hoof that had more than once lulled her to sleep with its touch as a filly. But you couldn’t stay a filly forever.

Red nodded a little. “Yeah, I… Wouldn’t give a good show tonight, I think.” She cleared her throat and moved towards the door slowly. “I don’t know who else I can get to cover for me though…”

Then, Vinyl had an idea. A really stupid idea that her mouth ran away with before she could stop it. “I’ll do it.” She said, almost not believing her own voice. Red blinked at her in surprise and Vinyl couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll do a little something for old times sake, yeah? Be good for me, I think. Don’t gotta be afraid of my parents finding me out anymore.” She put on her best cheesy grin, and Red blinked at her.

But right now, the only thing she had in mind was… was she had to get this out of her system before it all came down around her ears. “Go tell Mama, yeah? The piano still in the same place?” She hurried along, and Red nodded absently before stepping to the door. Vinyl pulled her shades off and checked the room. Sure enough, tucked away in the corner… “And go ask Tavi to come down too.” She half choked out.

Red looked like she had something she wanted to say, but her mouth closed around it and she nodded. Then she was gone, leaving Vinyl alone in the room she’d spent so much time in, so very long ago.

♫ It’s… funny. ♫

The words echoed in her head as she pulled the white collar tight around her neck, buttoning it up with care. The notes echoed through the room with a hum that came from nowhere. It was Blue. Not pink, like Tavia’s. But… A touch of the hair gel from the bottle on the vanity slicked back her wild mane into something a bit more formal. She glanced once into the mirror as the words echoed around her head with an old tune she’d played one too many times.

♫ A cold, rainy day… ♫

The piano was just where she’d left it. A little more battered, a little more worn, but she touched a single key and it sang as sweetly as it had the day she’d left her behind. Somepony had been keeping her in tune. She was an old Coltswain that had seen way too many years on the stage. Too many amateurs who had no appreciation for the gentle tones it could produce, banging out melodies for comedy bits. But in spite of all that abuse, all those years of misuse… somehow the old girl still could croon like a pro. Not unlike a certain showpony standing next to her.

She put her hooves into it, pushing it on the old oiled rollers towards the stage. Stunned looks followed her all the way there, though maybe they were seeing her tears that she let fall to the ground unheeded. She’d wipe em away before she got out there, but right now… right now they had to flow. Promises kept and broken, she’d done them all in her lifetime. But never quite like this.

♫ It’s funny… ♫

The other performers gave way, the applause from the dramatic bits hitting her ears with a surprising suddenness. Had they called it on account of her? That’d be all too much like Red to do that to her, but maybe it was best this way. The Piano rolled onto the stage with her pushing, the familiar feel of the polished wood slipping under her hooves. A stool was pushed next to the piano by a smiling filly with a busted up wing, and Vinyl couldn’t help but smile back at her. She hopped up onto the thing and grabbed the cloth to wipe away her tears and then wipe the dust from the keys. The curtain slowly parted, and a gentle voice split the air.

“Fillies and Gentlecolts, please welcome back to the Hidden Heart… For one night only, Lady Two-Tone.”

Silence swept the club, and the bright lights focused on her. Her hooves came up and she pressed them to the keys. One more time, Red. She whispered silently, and began to play.

♫ “Maybe… I should’ve saved those leftover dreams.” ♫

The words slipped out in a gentle tone, and the keys flowed under her magic. She closed her eyes and let the music swing, wishing she’d had the time to strike up a band to help with the bass. But this was good enough for now. She couldn’t have seen the crowd anyway, and there wasn’t much time to think. She had a song to sing.

♫ “Funny… But here’s that rainy day…” ♫

Life was never predictable. She’d learned that pretty young. But it never stopped hurting when you had to give up on a dream, even if you’d found another dream. It never stopped hurting to know that not everypony could win. Somepony had to end up on the wrong end of the stick somewhere along the line. It just really sucked that it had to be Red…

♫ “Here’s that rainy day they told me about….

And I laughed….

When they said that it might turn out this way…”♫

~~~~~The Friendship Express~~~~~

The gentle rush of wind past the windows of her train car threatened to lull Octavia to sleep, but she wasn’t going to do so until she was sure poor Vinyl had gotten to sleep too. The poor dear had been fighting with tears since they’d left the club some hours beforehoof, with only a promise from Aunty to come visit in Ponyville quite soon. They were going home now, with just a short stop in Canterlot to deal with one last problem… a problem that Octavia was quite determined to keep Vinyl out of.

Vinyl was staring out the window with that lost puppy look of hers, and it made Octavia quite furious. Mother. I expected better of you. Surely, mother had never been the most flexible of ponies, but really. To snub her like this was unconscionable, and then that business with Red Velvet… Yet how could she not understand? A love, born from need and loneliness was no less a true love than the bond they shared. Vinyl. I never meant to break your heart. It was a sad thought, but a genuine one.

But Vinyl would recover in time. It was never easy to leave your heart behind somewhere, only to find that your heart had grown beyond that place. Octavia had seen it before, and doubtless she would see it again. No, time and love would heal her mate. Speaking of which, she gently pressed her head up into Vinyl’s chin and the distraction elicited a gentle snuggle from her love. It was a good sign at least.

No, for now she needed to focus on how she was to deal with mother so as to not cause undue harm to Vinyl’s heart. The last thing she needed was for Vinyl and mother to come to blows over what had happened, especially given her beloved’s emotional state. Vinyl might very well lash out if mother got overly abrasive, and that was almost certain to happen in this tense moment.

“Tavia.” Vinyl croaked softly, instantly pulling her attention away from the problem of her most rude parent. “Did I do the right thing?” That was an odd question given what had happened today, but perhaps not an unexpected one.

Answering this correctly would be difficult. Vinyl did not simply wish to hear the practical problems with Red Velvet’s involvement, since she obviously already knew those. No, she was far more concerned with what she’d done to somepony she considered a friend. Not that it wasn’t necessary, but she certainly doesn’t want to hear that. “You did what you needed to, Vinyl,” she began slowly, trying to parse her words. “I know that’s not always simple or easy, but…” Oh, fie. She was mangling it already. The last thing she needed to do was-

Vinyl snorted faintly, leaning her cheek against the window. “Not always? Try never.” Her words came out bitter, but at least she wasn’t deadpan about it. “Tavia, I know I did what I had to do. I love you, and I’m with you, an’ that’s the long and short of it. But…” Her voice tripped again, and Octavia wondered what was going on behind her shades.

But the words put things into perspective. “Was it the right thing to do? I don’t know, Vinyl. I can’t tell you that.” Best to be upfront and honest. Maybe it would help. “What I do know is that it wouldn’t have helped anypony for you to lie to her or mislead her. She deserved better than that sort of nonsense.” And that was the truth, even if she’d gotten a bit forward with her.

Vinyl turned back to stare through the window silently, her jaw working as she chewed the words over in her mouth. “Maybe.” She conceded, bumping her head against the glass. “I still feel like shit about it.” She muttered a moment later, and her chest heaved just once in a restrained sob. Damnit, why did she do that? It was always… Octavia wanted to huff and smack her.

Instead she gently squeezed Vinyl’s shoulders and held her close. Now wasn’t the time to dwell on such things. She could smack Vinyl about later, when they got back to Ponyville and all of these nightmares were firmly in their rear window. Right now… “You wouldn’t be the mare I love if you didn’t.” She scolded, as gently as she could. “But right now, you need to sleep. You’ll feel better in the morning for it.”

Vinyl turned her head, hiding a smile behind her hoof. “I suppose it has been a super long day.” She grumbled, pulling her shades off and wrapping her hooves around Octavia. “Maybe I’m just tired…” She continued to grouse, leaning back into the cushions of the train-car seats.

“You’re always tired.” Octavia fired back, unable to help the grin on her face. “Perhaps I should make you get a regular job like normal ponies so you’re not awake at all hours of the night. You’d make a lovely piano instructor.”

Vinyl bonked her head on the back of the seat. “Oh hell naw.” She snarled, and Octavia giggled. Now that was more like the mare she loved.

Sonata-Rondo

~~~~~Canterlot~~~~~

When was the last time she’d been in Canterlot fer longer than an hour or two?

Oh yeah, the Princess’ wedding. That’d been a killer party. Why hadn’t she tried to go see Mom or Dad? Why hadn’t she tried to take care of this back then? Why hadn’t she… why, why, why. Bloody hell, she was turning into Pinkie. She knew why, and she knew why she hadn’t stuck around for longer than it’d taken to sober up and get paid. She was afraid of this place when it came right down to it. The fight they’d had with the Changelings hadn’t been nearly as bad as the fight she’d been waging with her parents for all these years.

Still, she had to admit it was a heckofa town. Soaring spires, beautiful architecture, killer party scene, great sources of mind-altering substances, good bars, decent restaurants, and plenty of places to get private with a colt or filly that didn’t require renting out a room. Not that she’d know about all of those… well, not that she’d admit to it. Octavia would probably get really scandalized at the idea of sex outside, which was a darn shame.

“Hey Vinyl,” Tavia tugged on her foreleg and she turned to face that pretty young mare. Tavia was smiling. “Good, you look better. I’m going to… the house.” She tripped over the word, since she’d probably wanted to say ‘home’. “If you think you need to come with me, I’ll understand. But…”

Vinyl shook her head. “Mum had her chance with me and she wasted it. I’m here cuz you need it.” She kissed Tavia’s cheek, and her sister giggled a little at it. “I’m gonna grab a drink an’ check in with my manager. Drop in and scare him outta his bowtie.” She waggled her eyebrows and Tavia giggled again. “Meet you at Donut Joe’s? We’ll get a snack before we catch the next train.”

Octavia nodded, and with one last squeeze of Vinyl’s shoulder quickly trotted off through the city. Towards her old house on the western edge of Canterlot. To the street where she’d run around in the warm rain that one day, that corner where she’d skinned her knee and Poppa had kissed it better, that-

Gah! Vinyl facehoofed and pointedly turned around, away from that end of town. She had business on the other end of town, anyway and she might as well get to it.

It took her a few minutes to get her bearings once she was away from the train station. She hadn’t been to Canterlot often enough to know it like she did Manehatten and Baltimare and Los Pegasus. It was always a little jarring to feel like a street punk and still not get called out for striding down the street alongside folks probably worth about fifty times what she was. She wasn’t exactly poor, but it still felt weird.

Still, it was kinda liberating in its own way. She’d come so far from the scared little filly running away from this place. She’d been through Tartarus and back again, and had come out the stronger for it. She had the mare she loved, she had a life she was happy with and a career that would keep her in bits till she keeled over from old age. Even if music tastes changed, she had enough clout and cash now to start her own recording label. Hmm. That was an idea she might wanna look into later.

The streets were gently bustling today, enough that she had to pay attention to where she walked but not so much that she couldn’t have a solid think on the way. Which was good, because she seriously needed a solid think. Her past lay behind her, scattered across the train tracks like leaves in the fall. Her future? What WAS her future, anyway? She couldn’t keep spinning forever, no matter how much she wished she could.

Maybe that whole start-a-label idea had some merit. Or maybe she could just retire and spend the rest of her days raising a pair of fillies while Tavia went off and started her own orchestra. Or maybe she could see if Rarity wanted a business partner, and she could design club-gear. That might be fun, actually.

But why was she thinkin’ about this now? It didn’t make sense. Maybe because the big “M” was now looming on the horizon an’ now she had to think about what she’d do with a real family again. She’d had her hoof up to the wind for so long, she’d forgotten what a family life was like. Would she even be capable of being a good mom? What did Tavia want to do?

Ugh. Vinyl really hated when she had to think about all this hard stuff.

Maybe it wouldn’t matter. Maybe something would come up and it’d all get simple again. Heh. Yeah, and maybe she’d become an Alicorn Princess. Or an Element of Harmony. HA! Right. Fat chance of any of THAT happening.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Octavia found herself staring up at the ancient house with its soaring columns and arches of ancient Unicornia design. At some point in the past few years, they’d had the windows touched up and reglazed, and it looked like mother had hired a new gardener with a talent for lilacs. The place could probably have doubled as a miniature fortress in times of conflict, given that it was almost solid stone construction from bottom to top, the entire thing surrounded with an impressively solid looking wall. One which she had climbed over no few times in her youth.

And still, she could not bring herself to move from the front gate. She had a key of course, but it was thrust into the keyhole and sat there silently accusing her of cowardice. Surely she could do this. She’d done much more frightening things in the name of her love this past year, had she not? Surely going on stage with Vinyl into a club where her music was most assuredly not the norm and being driven to a rather appealing orgasm by sheer musical- Ahem. Best not to dwell on such things.

She grabbed the key and glared at her hoof. “Turn it.” She huffed haughtily, and the key continued to stubbornly refuse to respond to her demands of her hoof. She lifted her hoof and smacked her forehead deliberately before reaching down and trying again. It would take her a full twenty seconds to accomplish her goal, but when the lock clicked open and the wrought iron gate swung silently open at her touch she felt a great deal better about these things.

Still, her true trial awaited. Which was to say, she was going to march into that place and give mother a piece of her mind. As soon as she recovered her key. And she took a deep breath. And she- Oh, for pete’s sake, Octavia! Stop stalling! She retrieved her key with one firm tug, tucking it into a saddlebag and then proceeding fearlessly into the gardens.

The strong smell of rich earth and fresh flowers filled the air with a heady perfume that threatened to overwhelm her anger. She loved these gardens. The deep greens, the bright scents… It was the kind of place any earth pony could be comfortable which was probably why Father had spent so much time composing out here. Though mother had all too frequently called it ‘composting’. Had they always been quite so… antagonistic, and had she merely been unable to see it?

Just as she reached the front door though, her thoughts crashed into a wall of high class. “Good afternoon, miss.” The smooth and cultured voice nearly startled her clean out of her coat, though Waddles Worth was as unflappable as ever. Well, for the most part. “Madam Pianissimo has been expecting you.” He spoke with an almost bored inflection, but Octavia knew better. There was a twitch in his eye, a tension in his muscles that would have been imperceptible to anypony who did not know him. He was concerned enough to have completely forgotten to offer her tea. That was the equivalent of a screaming fit in nearly anypony else.

“Thank you, Waddles Worth.” She tried to give him the most confident smile she could. If he was nervous, that probably meant Mother was already in a snit. Well, for once Octavia was not about to spare Mother’s feelings because she was moody. “You ought to probably make certain we’re left alone until I’ve spoken with her. I’d rather nopony else was the subject of her ire but myself.” That might help him be less nervous. Celestia knew he was a fine butler and did not need to be losing his position because of family drama.

He nodded once. “Of course, miss Octavia. Madam Pianissimo is in the upper gallery, and I am afraid she’s had a few glasses of wine already.” Oh, lovely. Not just moody mother, but buzzed moody mother. This was going to be a fabulous discussion, she just knew it. He hesitated, then spoke in a quieter voice. “Miss Octavia, I know you must be upset, but might I urge you to reconsider having this talk today?”

That… That was about as close as Waddles would ever get to questioning the mood of her mother in front of anypony. Realistically, he was probably right. Nothing constructive was going to come out of having this out today, but if she did not have it out today she might very well never do so. The time had come to stand up for Vinyl in way she had never had the courage to do before. “If you wouldn’t mind packing up the few things I’ve left here, Waddles Worth, I would be thankful.” She said more firmly, the unicorn butler swallowing and nodding once. Good. The last thing she needed was an argument.

She pushed the much-filigreed front door open with a shove of her shoulder and into the dark and mostly quiet house beyond it. The entire place reeked of class and style, dripping with the wealth Father and Mother had gathered over their prodigious musical career. It wasn’t quite the opulence of the noble households or the merchant barons which ruled the trade lanes of Equestria, but nopony could say Mother did not keep a house fit for entertaining such ponies.

The problem was it felt… fake, in an odd sort of way. Four years of living in Ponyville as she slowly built her musical career had seen her living in a rather simple little house with a thatch covered wooden roof and the need for a space heater or two in the wintertime. Style and class were lovely, but it didn’t feel very homey to her. Not as the place used to feel, back when they were children. Perhaps that was simply a truth of growing up and growing older… that you made new homes elsewhere in the world and left the old ones behind.

Her hooves were taking her upstairs on autopilot as she tried to prepare herself for the storm. She was not going to yell and she was not going to use profanity. She was going to make her point quite clear and then leave, so that she might sooner get home to spend time with Vinyl and move on from this ridiculous chapter in her life. There were far too many better things to spend time with than worrying about ponies who refused to change.

So why was she here? Why not let mother wallow in her misery and move on? Because she hurt Vinyl, and you want to do something about that. You want to be able to say you finally stood up to the mare for once in your life and told her she was being rude. And most importantly, because this means Vinyl never has to think about her ever again since YOU took care of the problem. For once. That all seemed quite logical in the moment, but Octavia knew at least two-thirds of that was emotional horsepucky and the other third was a gentle shake of logic away from crumbling into nothingness.

And yet she still climbed the spiral staircase, feeling herself get more and more stubborn. Why should she not say something? True, it was perhaps not the most polite thing to be doing right now but… well, she was quite tired of ‘being polite’. She was going to… Hmph. She shook her head, trying to clear it of the cloud that’d settled over her. Now was not the time to lose her cool. She continued briskly walking, keeping her head high.

The servants had cleared out, likely in anticipation of some kind of row between them. She huffed, and tried to focus down to what was important here, though it was possibly the fourth time since she’d entered the house that she’d tried to do that. It just was not done! She at least could have answered Vinyl’s invitation with a note or something. It wouldn’t have taken her very long to put pen to paper and scribble off a note, or perhaps send a telegraph if she could not even bring herself to be that industrious.

Certainly, Vinyl had been the cause of no small consternation amongst the family but that was no excuse to treat her like a pariah. Honestly, she’d expected this to be father’s behavior, not mother’s. She’d always seemed to be the sensible and down-to-earth one of the family, unlike father’s normal ego and arrogance. But this was… UGH! What on earth could she have been thinking?

Surely she hadn’t thought it was some kind of ploy to get money. Vinyl had always been incredibly reticent to ask for money from anypony, even as a child! It simply did not make sense to ascribe any kind of baser motivations to her actions, so what had it been? Had she simply been so utterly irrational at Vinyl’s sudden reappearance that she’d forgotten all semblance of manners?

But ascribing irrationality to her meant that she’d have some sort of excuse for this behavior, and frankly Octavia was not prepared to be quite that charitable with her right now. So what had happened? Bitterness? Time? Grief? Anger? Was there even a reason? Was she simply being petty for what Vinyl had done all those years ago, or was a deeper pain being hidden behind guilt and grief? Had mother, in her own pain and sorrow, unwittingly simply caused further harm to the daughter she could not admit she’d hurt?

She did not know. That was maddening. And then she snapped out of her thoughts to find the door right in front of her nose. She huffed once, then grasped the handle and hauled the thing open. Whatever mother had been thinking was irrelevant. She was here to speak her mind and leave, not get involved in an hours-long argument about intentions. Whatever they had been, she’d hurt Vinyl. And that, she would not longer abide.

Mother was perched in her lounging chair. A half-empty bottle of something expensive, red, and foreign lay on the ground next to an equally half-full glass. She appeared to be staring off into space, uncharacteristically silent for her alone moments. There was no music playing in the background and no sign of mother’s ever-present sheaf of notes for her next performance. She was wearing only the elegant gold and sapphire necklace Father had gotten her for their wedding present and a simple bright red bowtie and collar. It looked lovely against her own bright white coat, and if it wasn’t for her rather severe manestyle, one might’ve been able to mistake her for Vinyl.

Mother did not instantly acknowledge her arrival, nor did she speak… which Octavia was thankful for, since it gave her a moment to collect herself. She would be the bigger mare. She would take the high road. “Mother.” She greeted, and did a smooth little curtsy, as neat as anypony could ask for. Calm. She would be calm. “You know why I’ve come to speak with you?” That seemed a little silly to ask, but she was curious.

Mother smiled cynically, lifting the wine glass with her unicorn magic and nodding. “Your father sent quite a colorful telegraph this morning. His language hasn’t been quite that florid since before we were married.” She sipped the vintage - something old, fussy and expensive - before continuing to speak. “I imagine you’re rather sore with me.” She cocked a challenging eyebrow at her.

Octavia took in a deep breath, and found it driven out of her at an unladylike snort from her mother. “Forget it.” She growled over the wine glass, surprising Octavia quite seriously. “You’ve both made your choices. That fool child chose to abandon her future for some temporal fame in the popular arts, and so have you. I’ve no patience left for either of you.” She put the glass down and turned her head away. “Say whatever you have to say and go back to your libertine ways, and leave me in peace with my shattered legacy.”

That. Was. The. Last. Straw.

“You…” Octavia swallowed the profanity once. Twice. It didn’t keep. “BITCH!” The word lashed across the room like a physical blow, and mother’s head whipped around and her jaw dropped in utter shock. “You hag! You bloody toff!” Anger roared through her, overriding every ounce of sense she had and replacing it with the old-fashioned righteous fury she’d all too often seen Aunty Eleonore display to the unworthy. “I ought to slap the bleedin’ shit out of you for that, swear t’ bleedin’ Celestia I should!”

She might very well have, if her sudden and angry advance was not preceded by her mother scrambling over the back of the sofa and trying to back away from her. Octavia shoved the sofa away with a surprising burst of earth pony strength and heard herself snarl quite convincingly. “All Arpeggio wanted was to make amends. She just wanted to talk to you, and you couldn’t even give her the time of day!” She lifted both rear hooves and smashed the sitting sofa right into the wall, glad for the moment of stress relief so she could bring her anger under some kind of control. “She’d been hurt, she’d been lost, she’d been frightened for more than a decade, and you could not even find a shred of kindness in your heart to try and reach back to her!”

Mother’s mouth opened, but Octavia was not going to let her speak. “SHUT UP!” She screeched loud enough to make mother cover her ears with her hooves, staring in fear at her. “I’ve no patience with you anymore, mother.” She spat on the ground with all of the expertise of a Trottingham street punk. “So you are going to keep your fat gob shut and listen to me one last time, and then I am indeed going to leave you here. Alone, as you bloody deserve.”

Octavia stalked across the floor, coming nearly nose to nose with her hyperventilating mother. “I love Arpeggio. With all of my little heart, I do. She means more to me than anypony else in the world, and I shall not tolerate anypony bringing harm to her for any reason. Including YOU.” Octavia really knew she should stop being violent, but she could not help but slap her hoof against the wall next to her mother, looming closer. “She will one day vastly exceed your own fame, mother. She will out-do us all when she realizes what her gift can create. When she understands the joy her work brings to so many, she will change this world. And I will be by her side, as I ought to have been since we were children.”

Then she pulled away, lowering her head. “I was a fool to think you knew what was best for us. To think you were correct in telling me that such things were never meant to be.” Octavia felt her mouth twitch in a smile. “But you are wrong, and have always been wrong. Love is about more than mere blood or bone and it is far stronger than anything you, or anypony else could ever possibly understand.” She paused, taking a deep breath and trying to keep from just slapping the mare. That would certainly help nopony.

So instead, she turned away. “You don’t need to see me out, mother. I more than know the way and I shan’t be returning any time soon.” Then she marched to the door, holding her head high into the thick silence that permeated the room. When she reached the door, she strategically turned back to stare at her shocked mother with as much disdain as she could muster. “If perhaps someday you realize your error, you can find us in Ponyville. But I would recommend you do not come to speak ill of us, else I shall show you some of the other things Auntie Eleonore taught me. Like Hoofboxing.”

With that and a flounce of her tail, she left, slamming the study door behind her with a satisfying kick and a smile. There. That felt quite excellent. Now, she would gather her things, speak to some of the staff, and make haste to find Vinyl. Ponyville, and the life she’d finally won for herself and Vinyl, awaited her.

~~~~~~~~~

Vinyl Scratch toyed with the mug on the bar and tried not to think too much. It wasn’t easy, given that she didn’t have a lot else to do while she waited for Octavia to swing by. Her manager was unfortunately out of town and thus unavailable for her to rant at about finding her a nice long tour contract so she could get back to doing what she did best. Making music and doing kinky things to Tavia.

But instead, she was sitting in a bar on the west side of Canterlot, stirring a Trottingham Surprise and glaring into the wood as though it would confess the secrets of the universe to her if only she stared long enough. So far, the bartop wasn’t talking but Vinyl was pretty sure it was gonna crack any moment now. She just had to keep staring broodingly at it until it gave up all the secrets of life, the universe, and everything.

For now though, her drink tasted a little too sweet and her shades felt a little too heavy. She’d made it as a DJ, found the love of her life, dealt with her past problems, and even tied off an old flame. So what the heck was she gonna do now? Like… So I’ve pretty much managed most of my major life goals. I’m famous in my own industry, I got plenty of bits to keep myself afloat an’ a couple of merch contracts so when I gotta retool my music, I’ll have breathing space. So what the heck do I do next?

That was the sticking point. She didn’t know what to do next. Get married, sure, that was… kinda a goal. But it wasn’t really a challenge beyond ‘pick a date that everyone can come to,’ and ‘get a non-shitty caterer and DJ.’ Both of those shouldn’t be THAT hard to figure out, right? So what the heck was she doing with her life now? Having kids was a big one, sure. But… again, not so much a ‘goal’ as a ‘plan.’ She was gonna have kids. Somehow. She vaguely remembered there being some kind of magic for that if she didn’t just outright adopt. But still!

She bonked her head on the bar and wished she could give a good groan, but the barkeep would probably get annoyed if she started pissing and moaning. It was too early in the day for that, even if Vinyl was a well-known good-tipper. Besides, he didn’t care about her existential crisis, he was a bit too busy getting ready for the lunch rush. And that was kind of the clincher there, wasn’t it? She didn’t have any mountains to climb.

Vinyl had to be honest with herself, she’d always done better when she had challenges to face. Stuff to keep her going like making it as a DJ or figuring out how her relationship with Tavia was going to work out. But Red… Red had been an odd reminder of just how far she’d come in all of that. She had her dream, so what was she supposed to do next? Stagnate? Fuck that!

And for fuck’s sake, her thoughts were going in circles. She had to get out of here, so she dropped a few too many bits on the counter and shoved her way towards the door. Oblivious to everything around her, Vinyl began her meander down the not-so-mean streets of Canterlot. The streets that were always unnaturally clean and white, totally devoid of the trash and occasional stink that you’d find anywhere in Manehatten. They were just shy of perfect, only the occasional hoof scuff or bit of worn down paving stone marring its purity.

They were annoying. Not like the rough and tumble dirt-and-stone of Ponyville, which had a character all its own. Funny how a small town spoke to her in a way that a big one like this couldn’t, wasn’t it? And… maybe that was the point she was missing here. Little things, little goals. Life didn’t have to be all big sweeping bullshit. She was happy with what she had, why did she need to worry about having more?

It was an oddly cheering thought, that one. She was doing better than a lotta ponies, so why complain? Maybe… Maybe because she was doing so much better and she wasn’t doing anything with it. Maybe it was time to start thinking about that for a change, to walk in Mama Charity’s hoofsteps a bit. Sure, she didn’t have the bits right now to open her own club, but… But she could look into something like it. She could ask other smart ponies about that sort of thing, heck she knew plenty of ponies who might have ideas. Maybe even do some good for the world that went beyond good music.

Maybe she could make sure the next Arpeggio never had to be afraid.

“There you are, Vinyl!”

Octavia’s bright, happy voice cut through her thoughts, making her turn with a grin. “I swear,” Octavia said with an exasperated sigh, “you really do wander all over the place, don’t you?”

Vinyl couldn’t help but laugh at that. Boy, if only she knew how right she was. “Yeah, I do that. C’mon. Let’s go catch a train home. I’m tired of the road life for now.” She wrapped a hoof around Octavia’s shoulder and squeezed her close. She was sure things were going to be okay.

~~~~~The Friendship Express~~~~~~

“Did you say you just came from The Crystal Empire?”

Vinyl was speaking with remarkable cheer given the ridiculousness they’d been through this week, but Octavia was not terribly surprised. Vinyl always did overcompensate with being social and happy when she’d been in a mood for a while. And the delighted shock in her voice was enough to make her smile behind her hoof. Vinyl was still the adventurous little filly at heart.

Her conversational partner, a dark and handsome unicorn stallion wearing a pair of glasses was smiling tolerantly at her. He gave Octavia the willies, but she supposed it might just be his faintly aristocratic air tweaking her after the argument with mother. “Why yes. I was doing some research for my book on pony tribal magics.” The stallion mused, his voice thick with an accent Octavia couldn’t identify. His smile was also just a shade… too sincere. “Oh bless me, where are my manners? Professor Somber Gaze, at your service.” He offered a hoof, which Vinyl shook firmly and with a grin of her own.

“Nifty. I’ve wanted to visit ever since things settled down up there, but the train tickets are still super tough to get.” Vinyl’s voice soured to a grouse, and the Professor chuckled faintly. “They’re ponies ain’t they? They probably love music same as the rest of us do.”

The Professor nodded. “You’d be quite right, though they’ve expressed some astonishment as to what passes for music in the modern age.” He sighed faintly. “Not that I blame them, mind. I find such music a touch baffling myself.”

Vinyl’s grin got a little vicious. “Oldest saying in the book, gramps. If it’s too loud, yer too old.” She slapped her thigh and laughed brightly, which was just enough rudeness for Octavia to reach over and smack her across the back of the head. Dominant in the relationship or not, she would not tolerate Vinyl being rude to a stranger. Vinyl winced and rubbed her head, half glaring at her. “Ech. Sorry, pops. I’m a little protective of my art.”

But the older stallion waved his hoof. “No harm done. I’m quite passionate about my own art, so I understand.” He glanced out the window, then hummed. “We’re about to arrive it seems. I need to collect my wife.” He stood up and brushed his suit coat out with a thin smile. “Have a pleasant day, miss Scratch.” And then he was gone, bustling off into town.

Vinyl shook her head and stood up, stretching out with a yawn. “So. What do ya want to do when we get back? Aside from grabbing groceries and going crazy over all the mail we’ve missed?”

There was something about the way she spoke which struck Octavia as odd, but… “Well, I was hoping for a little quiet time.” She smiled faintly at Vinyl, who smiled back at her in the same way. “Well, perhaps not quiet.” She admitted, blushing at her own mild innuendo. Gracious, was she ever going to be able to talk about sex like an adult?

Vinyl just chuckled and hooked a hoof around her shoulder as the train cars slowly pulled to a stop in front of Ponyville station. “I think I’d like that.” She spoke gently, turning towards the exit doors and tapping her hoof impatiently. “Tavi…” She said slowly, biting at her lip. “Thanks for putting up with me through all this.”

Octavia just smiled. “That’s what wives do for their bumbling husbands.” She teased, gently nuzzling under Vinyl’s chin. “Now, let’s go home and plan the wedding. I’ve got so many ideas for the decor.” She felt her lips twist into an evil grin. “And we’ll need to get you a nice suit, and trim your mane a bit. I’m thinking pink. Lace. A proper cravat ruff.” She reached up and mussed Vinyl’s mane. “And we’ll need to have a proper full course meal for the reception of course.”

Vinyl facehoofed, and groaned softly. “We are NOT having a fancy nobles wedding!” she growled, pointing her hoof into Octavia’s chest. Octavia couldn’t help herself - she just laughed.

~~~~~~Some Hours Later~~~~~~

Night laid over the sleepy town of Ponyville like a thick blanket as the midnight train pulled silently into the station. A small knot of earth pony laborers picked themselves up from their card game and stretched out their muscles as the stationmaster flicked through the pages of his checklist. “Aright boys,” he said softly. “Cargo in cars six, seven and ten are first up for Mister Rich’s place. Let’s get ‘em movin.”

The earth ponies moved to the cars, slamming open the wide doors and beginning the long and laborious task of hauling the crates and boxes down onto carts. Far down at the other end of the train, the Station Master cocked an eyebrow as a lone figure stepped out of the foremost passenger car. She was wrapped in a very pretty looking red cloak and hood, and looked more than a little bit lost.

Passengers at this time of night were almost unheard of, especially given that most of Ponyville proper was all buttoned up for the night. Still, sometimes an emergency brought a messenger or visitor down from Canterlot to visit Miss Sparkle. “Evenin’ Miss!” He called out, raising his hoof. The figure turned, revealing a very pretty mare under the hood looking rather uncertain. “You lost?” He asked, tilting his head as he trotted up to her.

She hesitated, then sighed. “Maybe. Is this Ponyville?” her voice was as sweet as the morning dew, and twice as hot as his coffee. Yowza. She was quite the looker. Maybe she was running from something… or someone. In which case, he was duty bound to make sure she was taken care of. The Rail Crews made sure poor ponies like this one didn’t end up in bad hooves.

“Yes Ma’am,” he replied sharply, drawing himself up a little taller and trying to project confidence. Her hesitance and obvious worry reminded him a lot of another pony he’d seen once, a long time ago. He had always wondered what’d happened to that little filly… he hoped she’d gotten to Miss Charity’s place safely. “But I’m afraid all the inn’s and the like are closed up for the night. I can give you a soft bench to stretch out on in the station till mornin’ though.” It was the least he could do. As safe as Ponyville usually was, a stranger who didn’t know the place might end up wandering into serious trouble if they weren’t careful.

She paused briefly as if considering his offer, then nodded. “Thank you,” She swallowed a little, digging into her cloak before he waved her off. He wasn’t going to take her coin to make sure she had somewhere safe to stay for the night. She smiled prettily at him, in a smoky and almost inviting way. “I won’t impose too much, I hope. I don’t wish to wear out my welcome so quickly.”

At that, he just laughed. “Ma’am, this is Ponyville. We take care o’ one another round’ these parts, so it’s no imposition a’tall.” He stuck out his hoof, and grinned. “An’ yer as welcome here as any o’ the other wayward souls that’ve settled down here. Celestia knows ya wouldn’t be the strangest.” He tipped his cap, grinning. “I’m Stationmaster Steam Stack. Pleasure t’ meetcha, miss…?”

She took his hoof and shook it firmly. There was a strength there, and a fierce determination. If she’d come here to stay, she’d fit in just fine. She was a pegasus too, if he wasn’t mistaking himself. Always more room for another one of those. “Red Velvet,” she replied, her eyes sparkling and a lock of snow-white mane falling cutely over her face, “and the pleasure is all mine.”

The End….

......?

Author's Note

And so, at long last, it bloody ends. FINALLY.

Will there be another?

I dunno yet. But this is not the last we've heard of them....

Andante

Author's Note

This chapter has been slightly modified due to a major story re-working. Most of those changes are in the final few scenes, though a few other modifications have been scattered throughout.

Andante

~~~~Nineteen years ago, Canterlot~~~~

“Tavia, are you awake?”

The scared voice whispered out from the window, startling the young Octavia Piano out of her gloom. Sure enough, there was little Arpeggio hanging onto the window sill and carefully balanced on the rose trellis outside Octavia’s window. “Arpeggio, what in Celestia’s name are you doing out there!” Octavia said in a hushed tone of voice. She leapt off her bed and cantered as quietly as she could, shoving the window open with a great heave and grabbing onto Arpeggio’s hooves and pulling her inside. “You shouldn’t do such foolish things!” Octavia whispered, pitching her voice as low as she could. “Mother and Father are already very cross with us, and I do not wish to further anger them.”

“Tavia, they’re sending you away, and they won’t tell me where!” Arpeggio said in a desperate tone, her bright crimson eyes as wide as saucers. “They say I can’t see you until we’ve ‘grown out’ of somethin’ called a ‘phase’, and that could be forever!” Her white hooves wrapped tightly around Octavia, and Octavia returned the embrace fiercely. She did not like this any more than Arpeggio did, and although she had appealed to Aunty Eleonore for help… “Tavia, we gotta get outta here,” Arpeggio whispered, and Octavia felt herself jerk in shock at the suggestion. Run away from home?

“Do not be silly, Arpeggio,” Octavia admonished her, gently pressing her hoof against Arpeggio’s mouth to keep her from arguing. “We shan’t be separated for long. I will be speaking to Aunty Eleonore as soon as possible, and I am certain she will see us reunited swiftly.” Octavia did all she could to project confidence in that turn of events, even if she privately doubted that outcome. Young though she was, she knew Mother and Father were extremely cross about their friendship… well, she didn’t understand why they’d been cross about it, but they were.

Right now though, she needed to keep Arpeggio from doing something rash. The signs of her emotional distress were quite obvious not only in her voice but how she carried herself. Arpeggio had always been shy and a little reserved, as befit the immense talent she had with her chosen instrument - and she never failed to use proper grammar and speech unless she was extremely distressed… as she was right now. “Arpeggio… We will see one another again, and soon,” Octavia said with a gently soothing voice, tucking her sister’s mane back behind her ears. She really was beautiful… which was just one of the many reasons Octavia loved her so very much. It made her next words much easier to say, and to mean with all of her heart.

“I promise.”

~~~~~The Hidden Heart, present day.~~~~~

Vinyl started and realized that somehow she’d dozed off. Why the heck had she done that? She almost never felt comfortable enough to sleep someplace that wasn’t somewhere she identified as ‘home’... except this place was, kinda. That brought back the flood of memories, the sharp scent of hide coming from the dressing cabinet, the soft feel of the linen sheets. That dark red paint job on the walls - the same color it’d been for as long as Vinyl could remember. One of many bedrooms in the Hidden Heart… but this one was hers.

Oh true, it wasn’t filled with her mementos or clothes anymore. Those had either been re-distributed to others in need or taken with her when she set off on her quest to become a DJ. It didn’t have that old side table with the bum leg any longer, and the floor had been freshly varnished not too long ago. But it was hers - hers by virtue of that old unconscious knowledge one has of a place one lives. The bed’s lumps were exactly where she remembered them, the floor still uneven in all the right places, and the room still smelled faintly of honey and cinnamon - her favorite.

She reached a hoof up and ruffled at her mane, trying to rough it back into shape. She let out a huge yawn and hopped off the bed, trotting toward the door. How had she gotten up here again? Oh yeah, Momma Charity. Always knows when I haven’t been sleeping. Some things never changed, especially Charity Heart being able to see right through Vinyl’s facades. The door swung open with a little squeaky-creek out into the hallway, and a bright and soft voice called out as her head crested the doorway. “Hello, beautiful.” Vinyl’s hooves froze in place, and her head swiveled slowly to her right. Today had already been an avalanche of old memories hitting her one after the other… but this one… This was one she hadn’t expected.

She looked just the same as the day Vinyl had left.

The long, snow-white mane that fanned behind her head and stretched down to just above the ground, tickling at her ankles in thick waves. The bright blue eyes, as clear as the sea on a warm summer’s day. The silken coat the color of deeply ripened strawberries. Long feathered, graceful wings dyed with a rippling white pattern. That broad and gentle smile. That voice. “You look like somepony just hit you with a board, beautiful,” she said, her hoof coming up and gently pushing Vinyl’s jaw shut. Then she kissed Vinyl, pressing her lips up against hers firmly - her sleek pegasi body shoving Vinyl back into the bedroom and slamming the door shut behind them with a flick of her talented tail. Before Vinyl knew it, she was already falling ass over teakettle onto the bed, pinned there by the highly insistent lips of the pony atop her.

Vinyl was struggling to think under the sensual assault - even as her body betrayed her for a few crucial moments. So many memories. So many mornings just like this, pounced upon even before she could wrap herself around a bowl of oatmeal. Shoved through the door, just like this. Vinyl would arch up against her - pressing their bodies together, Just like this… Vinyl’s mind whispered at her. Her mane had once been the same dark red as the other mare’s coat, and they had presented such an artistic picture pressed together just like this…

Then reality finally set in, and Vinyl tore herself away from the kiss. “Fuck! Red, stoppit!” she gasped out, her hooves managing to create some separation from herself and the other mare - both of their breaths coming in syncopated heavy rhythm. Those bright blue eyes stared soulfully at her. Vinyl bit at her lower lip at the sight of that look, Red wearing that sly and knowing smile. “Nice to see you too, Red Velvet,” Vinyl croaked out at her as her breath came in heavy pants, forcing down every single natural urge to throw herself at the other mare and keep that ball rolling.

Red Velvet laughed throatily - not bothering to move from her rather compromising position of pinning Vinyl to the sheets. “It’s wonderful to see you too, beautiful.” Her voice was smooth as her mane, and twice as hot as the red of her coat… but underneath all that smouldering sensuality was the same gentle mare who’d taken Vinyl under her wing, so to speak, so very long ago. “I missed you.” Gone was the heat as she said those words, replaced with a soft wistfulness and sorrow, and just a touch… of hope.

Vinyl felt her heart crush under the weight of that hope. Especially after all Red Velvet had done for her, after everything they’d been through together. How could she tell her? But still…. the truth was better, and she’d missed her too. “Same, Red,” Vinyl said back in a sotto voice and gently nuzzled her cheek against her old marefriend’s. “C’mon now. I got some stuff to tell ya,” Vinyl insisted, hoping that a lack of physical contact would make it easier to say the words she really didn’t want to say.

Red Velvet sighed dramatically - she’d always been a world class drama queen - and rolled off of Vinyl with a practiced ease. Vinyl could still feel the heat of her body after she was gone, and once again it took every single ounce of her self control not to pounce the girl. Even so, visions of sharing a bed with her and Octavia swam in Vinyl’s head. And damn, it was hard to concentrate with Red giving her those bedroom eyes. “Well then why don’t you fess up, beautiful?” Red cooed at her, crossing her forelegs primly and tucking her hindquarters under her, curling up like a cat on the bedspread.

Vinyl sucked in a deep breath and exhaled deeply, focusing. Red would understand. Red had been there every night in the beginning; when Vinyl had cried herself to sleep because she couldn’t find her sister, and she had no idea where to look next and - Stoppit, Vinyl. “I uh...I found her, Red,” Vinyl said softly, pulling her hind legs up and wrapping her forelegs around them tightly. “I found Tavia.” Red gave a little gasp at that, her hoof daintily pressed to her lips as Vinyl kept speaking, doing her best not to feel a tremble of fear. “She and I… we… we got together again. And I love her, Red… Love her with all of my heart.” Vinyl closed her eyes shut tight, glad for the sunglasses to hide the motion.

For a moment there was silence… until Red began to chuckle richly. “Well now, that certainly complicates my plans for the afternoon.” Vinyl’s eyes snapped open at the suggestion, and she could see Red Velvet with a smoky smile on her face looking… curious. Uh oh. “I guess I’m going to have to meet this filly,” she continued, uncoiling from the bed and leaning up to breathe words softly into Vinyl’s ear. “Especially if she’s enough to make even you slow down.”

Vinyl’s brain was officially broken. Oh Celestia, no. She’d eat poor Tavia alive. Tavi’s never been inside a brothel! She doesn’t know their tricks! Vinyl’s mind desperately tried to pull itself together - but Red was already moving toward the door with her smooth and slinky walk. “She must still be down in the showroom… I think I’ll just trot on down there and we can…” Red flicked her tail to one side and her eyes gleamed as she glanced fetchingly over her shoulder, "talk,” she finished, wrapping her lips around the word like… well, it certainly called some vivid images into Vinyl’s mind.

That word was enough to free Vinyl from the confinement of her mind - and she scrambled after Red Velvet quickly, stammering as she went. “Wait! Waitwaitwaitwaitwait, Red!” She cried out after her, but Red Velvet was already gliding down the hallway with a mirthful giggle. Vinyl rounded out of her door and took off at top speed down the hallway after her - dodging and ducking past any number of other ponies in the hallway. “Red, stoppit damnit!” She called after her, but the damned mare was always one step ahead of her, slipping through the crowd with all the grace of an acrobat… which Vinyl now recalled, she kinda was.

‘Course, Vinyl had gotten pretty spry over the last few years herself - but no matter how much she dodged and raced, Velvet kept ahead of her… somehow. Vinyl’s thoughts were seized upon catching up to her to try to explain what kind of mare Octavia was before Red got down there and either seduced or scandalized her - or worse, both. Of course, upon reflection, she really ought to have been paying attention to where Red was actually going…

Unfortunately, that thought didn’t occur to her until she came to a screeching halt. Having temporarily lost track of Red, she glanced about wildly only to be blindsided once again by the sleek red pegasus and pinned to a wall. “Goodness, beautiful - it’s been a long time since you’ve chased me quite like that.” Red’s voice oozed sex-appeal and amusement, and Vinyl couldn’t help but give a little snort of laughter. “Still, impressive. You used to cause a lot more ruckus running through the crowds. Now come along and lets go see your fillyfriend,” Red said with a sly sort of smile, her hoof wrapped firmly enough around Vinyl’s neck to make sure she was coming along, like it or not.

Vinyl tried to to talk, but only got a mouthful of very talented tongue for her troubles. While they were walking, no less, past quite a few of the other ponies in residence. “Keep your cute mouth shut, beautiful,” said Red, with a slightly warning tone. “We’re going to go see this filly of yours and that’s final.” Vinyl gulped down her words as she was marched along - her worries about Octavia only rivaled by the warm feel of Red pressed up against her side as they walked. Of all the ponies she’d expected to see today, Red Velvet hadn’t even been on the list… And that worried Vinyl.

Just what did Red have up her sleeves?

~~~~The Hidden Heart, Showroom~~~~

Octavia quietly kept her hooves folded as the stallion was led down a wide spiral staircase at the far end of the hallway. Aunty Eleonore had put in a fresh wad of tobacco and was puffing merrily away at it, utterly unconcerned with the fact that Father had always despised the habit. But then, something was definitely different about Father. He did not walk with the same stern confidence he usually did, and his choice in clothing was much more subdued than his traditional stock.

In fact, he didn’t look anything like he had ever looked in all of her memory. The tall but slim unicorn stallion that was her Father wore an elegantly cut white suit coat and sapphire bowtie that looked quite fetching on him. A lovely contrast with his naturally white coat. His eyes were a bright and curious maroon, much like Vinyl’s, and his dark brown mane in that style he had once called ‘messy chic’ - which was his own way of saying he was one of the finest composers in Equestria and didn’t give a buck about styling his mane.

But the most telling change was in his carriage and walk. Gone was the arrogant stride, the upturned snout, the fierce glare that no few students of his had called demonic. An intense energy now lurked behind those eyes, and his expression was at once somber and resolute. Even as he approached the table, he turned those eyes first upon Aunty Eleonore, and in an instant everything about him changed into something much more genial.

It was then that Octavia received one of the biggest shocks in her life. Her father - the famed Allegretto Piano - walked silently around the table and hugged his mother firmly. Aunty Eleonore looked astonished, her pipe half hanging out of her mouth in amazement for a brief moment until she clamped down on it and wrapped her own hoof around her son’s shoulder. Her eyes closed for a moment in obvious emotional turbulence. Never before in her presence had Father shown more than a passing affection for his mother… hence why she had always known her as ‘Aunty’ Eleonore, not Grandmother.

A few moments later, Father pulled away from the embrace and exhaled deeply. “I am so very sorry, Eleo- Mother.” A slightly annoyed look crossed his face, then he shook it away. “For these past few years, I have been every bit the fool you have long accused me of being. I can but hope to amend that in the years to come.” He turned resolutely toward Octavia, and a very faint smile crossed his face. “Hello, my little Octavia. It has been far too long.”

“Father.” Octavia bowed her head respectfully - and received a second shock as her father circled the table and gently embraced her as well. It was a touch on the awkward side, but there was little doubting the warmth and love in that touch - so Octavia extended her own hooves to hug him back firmly. “I… I missed you too,” she whispered, wondering what was going on to have created such an obviously drastic change in Father’s normal self. “But Father, what has happened? Where is Mother?” The formal speech was like slipping into a comfortable pair of old slippers - a calming influence, in spite of the shocks she’d had delivered to her so far.

Father shook his head slowly, a gusty sigh escaping him as he released her and slumped into a chair. “I tried to speak sense to her, Octavia. I truly did, but she steadfastly refused to come. She has not forgiven poor Arpeggio.” His voice sounded more defeated than she’d ever heard it before, his hooves coming up to gently rub at his own eyes. “No matter what I said, she refused to hear reason. Then again, she took poor Arpeggio’s flight even worse than I did. She has been blaming everypony but herself for it.” He gave off a heavy sigh... then he looked up, a glimmer of hope sparkling in his eyes. There was something there in his spirit that had not been there for a very long time. “Tell me, Octavia. Is it true she is the one they now call Vinyl Scratch? And that she has taken up the composition of music as her career?”

Octavia swallowed softly at the mention of what had happened to Mother, but she could not allow emotions to get in the way of things… not when there was a chance here to lay the foundations which might help save Vinyl some pain. She spoke softly and quickly, with a gentle smile on her face masking her worry, “Ah… I do not know as you would see it as music, Father. But yes, she has been composing in her own unique ways, and those compositions are extremely popular.” That was a very mild way of putting it, but Octavia would rather exercise restraint than inform her father that Vinyl’s work was likely quite outselling his own. Still, he unquestionably swelled with pride at that news, giving the first unsullied smile he’d shown her thus far. Octavia felt a little smile tug at her own lips at continuing. “She’s quite the innovator, Father. I daresay she could even teach you a thing or two.”

For a few moments, the father of her youth was back - his chest swelled with pride in the accomplishments of his children. “Pish-tosh, Octavia. Even I can unbend enough to admit that music is in the ears of the composer.” His eye twinkled with a touch of sly humor. “I have certainly penned an unconventional piece or two in my time.” He chuckled brightly and Octavia felt her cheeks color a little, now slightly worried about her father’s first exposure to Vinyl’s work.

But that was a concern for another time. There were more important issues at hoof - issues like her mother’s reaction. Vinyl had expected both parents to show up, and frankly, so had Octavia. Then again, she hadn’t expected Father’s apparent about-face on the subject of what had happened to Vinyl either, so perhaps this was just a mixed blessing. The problem now lay in the fact that poor Vinyl was going to have to go through this twice… and given that she hadn’t been precisely stable when they’d arrived, that was potentially a very big problem.

Still, Father was here. He was supportive enough so far, and Octavia simply had to hope she could turn this situation into a positive. Father was now chatting quietly with Aunty Eleonore, which gave Octavia the chance to quickly scan her surroundings - looking for somepony to help track down Vinyl. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, she heard Vinyl long before she had to work up the courage to ask for help from one of the locals. Vinyl’s voice cried out from somewhere above her... “Oi! Red! Stop twisting my ear like tha- GAH!! Stoppit Red!” Judging by how the sound echoed down into the room, Vinyl was coming down one of the upstairs hallways.

Father arched an eyebrow at Octavia, and she sighed softly. She wanted to facehoof… but, she was more amused than annoyed. Father mouthed Vinyl’s name and Octavia nodded at him, a wry sort of smile crossing her face. She had long since gotten used to the fact that Vinyl had some odd friends, and many of them had odd ways of greeting her. Still, she was certain it wouldn’t be anything particular.

Well, she was certain for all of the next three minutes until the two figures appeared at the top of the spiral staircase. The scene was perfectly comedic… and perfectly worrying. The red-coated pegasus had Vinyl in a rather superb example of a headlock as they traversed down the staircase, and Vinyl was only making a token effort to wrestle free of it. Octavia, long accustomed to the subtleties of body language, could read the easy intimacy between the pair of them like a book. Vinyl whined, complained, and struggled…. but there was a certain element of ease between them. The red mare simply looked amused and continued to drag Vinyl down the steps one at a time, her gentle serenity never wavering an inch. There was something vaguely commonplace about the whole scene. Something… homey.

But most disturbing and incredible of all the things was how they moved together. Vinyl was struggling, certainly... but it was in fun, her eyes sparkling with every moment they tumbled down the steps. The red mare was amusedly dragging her - but there was a flush in her cheeks that spoke of much more than physical effort. “Come on, Red! Cheese Louise, I’m not going to run away from him!” she half yelled as they thumped to the bottom of the stairs, and Octavia felt a hard lump drop into her throat as they reached the ground. With Vinyl half escaping from her friend and sticking her tongue out at the pegasus. “Fer the luvva Celestia, Red. I’m not thirteen anymore!” she snarked, only to have another leg lasso around her neck and start dragging her over to the table. After everything Vinyl had been unwilling to talk about when it came to her life here, absolutely all it fell neatly into place for Octavia in those few, short moments.

But before she could speak, they reached the table and Vinyl’s gaze riveted upon their father. The red pegasus released Vinyl instantly, her eyes widening with shock and surprise for just a moment and darting between all the ponies now positioned around the table. Once again though, Father surprised Octavia so completely she wondered what had happened to him. His eyes stared for a few long silent moments at Vinyl before shoving away from the table and getting off his chair. He walked around to where Vinyl’s flank had hit the floor and sat down next to her.

For a moment, nopony spoke.

Then Father’s mouth opened with a cracked and strained voice. “Arpeggio,” he said with a wince, his head dipped low as his voice cracked on the word. “Arpeggio, I am so sorry.” The words fell out of his mouth like rocks, forced past the sound of repressed tears and ancient pain. “I... Oh Celestia, you really are here,” his voice blurted, and he lifted up a shaking hoof to run through her mane. Vinyl’s face was still a study in shock as it gently traversed her wildly colored hair, Father’s voice coming out in wracked sobs. “I hadn’t… I couldn’t… when I’d heard you’d vanished, I’d thought… I’d thought you were…”

That snapped Vinyl out of her shock, and her eyes softened with concern. She took Father’s hoof in hers and pulled it around her shoulder. Vinyl’s eyes closed and the glitter of tears could be seen slowly trailing down her cheeks. “S’okay, Poppa,” Vinyl said gently, tugging him closer as Father’s sobs turned into tears.

“S’okay. I’m here.”

~~~~The Hidden Heart, 15 years ago~~~~

A little white filly sat on the edge of her bed, kicking her legs back and forth and munching on a triangle of grilled cheese. Next to her clothes press, a battered and much abused stand up piano waited for another jaunty tune to be played upon its keys. Arpeggio didn’t so much mind playing on the piano as she was worried that somepony from Canterlot might come and see her playing it down in the main hall. True, her once dark brown mane had been dyed into a silvery white, and she was much more physically fit than she’d been before which gave her a lean whiplike body.

But white unicorns around her age who were prodigious piano players weren’t exactly falling out of the cupboards. It was only a matter of time, to Vinyl’s mind, before somepony who might have seen her upon the stage in the Grand Theatre at Canterlot would show up and everything to come crashing down around her ears. Even worse, she hadn’t found any sign of Tavia anywhere in the city. Other ponies had certainly heard of Eleonore Fortissimo and her prodigy student, but nopony seemed to know where the student was. Arpeggio’s first idea was to try to go to Trottingham, where Aunt Eleonore lived, but the cost to get there was too high for her to afford on what few bits she still had left, and she wasn’t about to ask Mama Charity for money so she could leave.

Still, after an entire year of looking, things were starting to weigh heavily on her little shoulders. She’d begun to worry that she really wouldn’t ever see Tavia again. Her eyes began to sting as she gently dropped her half eaten sandwich to the plate and gripped at the soft linen sheet of her bed. “I’m not gonna cry,” she whispered softly, firmly trying to convince herself of that. It wasn’t working, but she was trying anyway because big fillies didn’t cry. She was very nearly about to give into that desire when soft, red wings enveloped her shoulders and hugged her back into a warm and soft hug; a soft voice whispering gently into her ears.

“Hello there, beautiful.”

Arpeggio spun around in place and pressed her eyes into the soft shoulder of her roommate and stopped trying not to cry. “Shh… It’s okay, ‘Peggio.” A gentle hoof stroked down her back as she simply let the tears flow - not sobbing so much as releasing all of the pain and emotion that had built up inside her. Red had been so kind to her ever since she’d arrived, it had almost been like having Tavia around again. But just the thought of her lost sister made the tears worse, and Arpeggio clutched at Red even tighter. Tears didn’t last forever though, and eventually, Arpeggio cried herself out, and Red lifted her back a little to give her a gentle smile. “Feeling better?” she asked quietly.

Arpeggio nodded a little, rubbing at her now stuffed up nose. It was sometimes startling to remember that Red was only a year or two older than her. Red chuckled and - from somewhere - produced a hankie which she offered to Arpeggio. “Here you go, beautiful,” she cooed as Arpeggio took the hanky with her magic and blew her nose... very loudly. Red giggled softly in response, and Arpeggio couldn’t help but giggle in return. Red’s rich and velvety alto voice contrasted very nicely with Arpeggio’s young soprano in a way that charmed the young musician. “So. Mama Charity tells me you’re trying to find something other than playing to do here,” Red quipped softly, now that Arpeggio had calmed down enough to talk.

Arpeggio nodded enthusiastically, her head bobbing up and down rapidly. Her voice was bright, but strained as she spoke. “Yeah! I love to play… I really do! But… it’s… it’s not the same without Tavia around, and I’m worried somepony might recognize me on stage an’ tell my parents…” Arpeggio forced a lump in her throat down. She’d just had a long cry - she wasn’t gonna get caught up in another one! “So um… I’m trying to find somethin’ else I can be good at.”

Red tilted her head to one side and a slow kind of smile crossed her face. It was a strange smile, kinda sly and… anticipatory. “Well, I did have an idea,” Red said with a quiet sort of intensity. Arpeggio only had a few moments to tilt her head in curiosity when Red’s lips met hers, and her body pressed up warmly to Arpeggio’s. Her eyes widened in temporary shock as gentle hooves wrapped around her neck and held her close to that warm body. The kiss was like nothing else Arpeggio had ever felt before… well, almost like nothing else.

It was like when she’d kissed Tavia.

Arpeggio felt electric shivers down her spine and a gentle heat blossoming in her chest, her eyes softening with a little moisture. She snapped them shut hard and pushed back into the kiss - wanting that warmth, that feeling of love and intimacy. Needing it like she needed water or air or… she didn’t have the words for it. It was warm and gentle and wonderful in a way that defied description. When Red finally pulled away from it, Arpeggio could only feel a gentle and funny sort of heat deep within her, and Celestia help her but she liked it a whole lot.

Red tossed her mane coyly. “We could do some… special performances together,” Red continued, and for a moment Arpeggio felt worry worm its way into her heart again… but it was banished only moments later, as Red gave off a soft laugh. “Oh, nothing musical, my beauty. You’ve seen the sorts of dances and things I do, yes?” Arpeggio nodded enthusiastically. Red Velvet was considered the most talented of the younger dancers in the club, and she moved so beautifully during the practices. She also did some other odd acrobatic things, but Arpeggio figured it was some kind of dancer thing. Not that Arpeggio had ever seen her on stage…

Red Velvet smiled slyly. “Well, if we were to work together, we could do something even better. Audiences love to see two cute fillies…” And there was that kiss again, and that rush of electric pleasure through Arpeggio’s body that gave her a strange kind of ache she’d never felt before. The kiss went on for several long moments before Red broke away and licked her lips, like she’d just had a sweet. “Mm… like that,” Red finished, and Arpeggio was astonished. Ponies watched this sort of thing? Then again, she was certainly enjoying it herself but… well it wasn’t like they’d be doing it with her!

Or…

Arpeggio’s mind raced to the evening a few weeks earlier. Of Mama Charity and that strange older stallion doing all sorts of odd things. But Mama Charity had clearly been enjoying herself, and so had the older stallion. “Um… do you mean like Mama Charity does it?” Arpeggio asked in a curious voice. That got a startled expression out of Red, meaning she’d probably been thinking of something else. Arpeggio tilted her head in curiosity. “Then what’s the thing Mama Charity does?” She tried to hide her confusion - she knew there were lots of things about life other ponies knew that she didn’t.

Red coughed softly, and shook her head wonderingly. “You mean… Peggio, you can’t tell me you don’t know what sex is.” Arpeggio blinked and tilted her head, trying to think really, really hard about the word. It’d come up when Momma had been teaching her but… she shook her head a little. Red stared at her in astonishment. “Uhm… You said you were kissing and making out with Tavia when your parents caught you right?” Arpeggio winced but nodded a little anyway. Red frowned, rubbing her chin for a moment even as she tried to hold Arpeggio closer to her. “You told me you two were, ah… touching one another, and you were having fun?” Arpeggio nodded again, but this time more enthusiastically. It had felt really good! Was that sex? Touching and kissing and all this fun stuff?

Red seemed a little pained, and Arpeggio felt sheepish. “Sorry, Red… There’s a lotta stuff Poppa and Momma didn’t let me learn.” She sighed exasperatedly, and Red just hugged her firmly. “But if that’s what sex is, then I’d be super interested in learning more about it.” That got a bit of a blink from Red, and Arpeggio grinned brightly. “Come on! I can learn anything I set myself to an’ I can prove it!” She puffed out her chest proudly, having never found the subject she couldn’t master once she set her mind to it.

Red’s smile was something Arpeggio couldn’t identify, but there was something… inviting to her voice as she spoke. “Nopony would suspect the demure little Arpeggio doing such things. We’ll have to dye your mane red of course… And we’ll have to talk to Mama Charity about it first.” Her eyes sparkled and Arpeggio’s heart soared. Red would surely take care of her worries, and it might even be fun to try this sex stuff. Maybe it was even as fun as what she’d been doing with Tavia.

Now, who could she find to help her...

~~~~~The Hidden Heart, Present Day~~~~~

All of Vinyl’s carefully crafted plans were now shattered into tiny pieces and scattered to the four winds. Tavia was gone, and so was Mama Charity and Red - they’d left her alone with Poppa who was just beginning to recover from his temporary breakdown into tears. Vinyl had dragged Poppa into one of the private lounges on the main floor, and was very thankful that she hadn’t found anypony foolin’ around in the room. Poppa was cleaning himself up now with a freshly drawn basin of cool water and a spotless white kerchief, giving Vinyl a few minutes to recollect her thoughts.

The problem was pretty simple of course… she’d expected confrontation, and what she’d gotten was embarrassing amounts of relief. There was no rage, none of the perfection-demanded anger in him that she remembered so well from the earliest lessons he’d given them on composition and musical theory. Just looking at him was enough to convince Vinyl that this was not the same pony she’d fled from all those years ago. His eyes were bloodshot and there were dark rings of worry beneath them - some of that had to come from the crying. The rest…

His voice was just a touch hoarse as he spoke, his eyes focused on the bowl of water as he neatly folded the kerchief. “When I heard about what had happened at the symphony, I admit that my anger got the better of me. The letter I wrote during that time is the greatest mistake I have ever put to paper in my entire life.” He gave off a soft sniffle and exhaled, rubbing at his nose idly. “By the time I reached Ponyville, my anger had cooled completely… and when I found your room empty, your things gone, and your piano missing entirely…”

Poppa gave off a little shiver - or perhaps it was a shudder - at the memory. “I feared the worst.” His voice had gone quiet, reflecting upon that moment in spite of how unpleasant it was for him to probably remember it. “I found my letter, opened and discarded upon the ground. My thoughts were consumed with the fear that you had been taken by those who intended to…” He gulped down what had to have been a lump in his throat, his eyes scrunched shut. “Make ill use of you. And that even worse still, my final words to you would have left you utterly without hope or spirit to escape such captivity.”

Poppa’s neatly folded kerchief was now bunched up between his hooves as Vinyl stared at him in astonishment, almost unable to believe the words he was saying right to her face. “I could not compose. I could not sing or play or any of the like. For three years I offered countless rewards for even the merest hint of where you might have been taken.” He took in a deep breath and exhaled it. “Finally, somepony came forward anonymously… he didn’t want a reward, but he did wish me to know that you had run off on your own accord. That… that was when I realized what your mother and I had done to you.”

He fell silent then for a few long, aching minutes. He looked as miserable as any colt Vinyl had ever seen sitting in one of these booths. Reflex made her want to hug him and assure him things were going to be okay, but…. “I was so scared of you, Pops. You an’ Mom both,” Vinyl said in her quietest, most self controlled voice. “When you two took Tavi away from me, I was never quite the same after. She always kept me grounded an’ focused and reminded me of why I was workin’ so hard on my music, an when she was gone…” She trailed off after a moment, then sucked in a deep breath and exhaled.

Poppa had blessedly remained silent while she collected her thoughts, trying to be as charitable as she could. “I hated you both,” came the inevitable, venomous whisper. She couldn’t hide behind an air of disinterest. Not with the object of her anger and fear right in front of her. She wanted to strangle him, to stomp his stupid crying face in… “I was so terrified you were gonna lock me up an’ I’d never see Tavia again, so I ran, and I never looked back.”

She wanted to say more - she’d had a big speech all planned and ready, a scathing condemnation of them. Something she could dish out and then go back to Ponyville so she’d never have to think about them again, but… “I don’t blame you for that, Arpeggio,” he said, oh-so-quietly. Oh so-ashamedly. Like a colt caught with his hoof in the cookie-jar.

“My name is Vinyl Scratch, Pops,” she snapped at him, her patience for that stupid name finally coming to an abrupt end. “An’ that’s the only name I answer to now.” Unless Tavia was teasing her with it, but she was the only pony in the world who had permission to do that. She stalked across the room and shoved her hoof into his chest, barely able to hold back the simmering cauldron of emotions she was sitting on. “And if you’re actually serious about bein’ sorry, you can start with usin’ my real name.”

Poppa’s mouth opened a little, then snapped shut… then he nodded. “Yes, you’re right. Vinyl.” Vinyl stared at him - more than just a little shock coursing through her system. “Vinyl Scratch.” He was rolling the word around his mouth when he spoke it, then he smiled faintly. “It is not quite as beautiful as your old name, but it has a certain edge to it. It is a strong sound, resonant in the air - it challenges and demands respect. It suits you.” There was no small amount of pride in his voice, and his eyes glittered with a hidden happiness.

Vinyl felt her cheeks color a little and coughed softly. “Yeah, well… I thought so.” She looked away for a moment, trying to figure out how to handle the next issue and sighed. Buck it. I’m outta polite for the day. “Mom didn’t want to come, did she.” That was a statement, not a question, and Poppa nodded his head sadly. Vinyl blew her cheeks out and glared at the wooden floor. Great. She’d have to go to farking Canterlot to finish dealing with this crap.

“I am sorry, Vinyl.” It sounded odd to hear her Pops call her that, but there it was. “I tried. I truly did.” His voice sank into defeat, and he hung his head at those words. Vinyl bit off her retort, forcing it down into her belly and commanding it to shut the buck up. She was going to salvage something positive out of this shit if it was the last thing she did.

So she trotted over to the little booth in the private lounge and slumped into the seat. “Siddown, Pops. Tell me the whole story.” She waved her hoof wearily and perched her chin on it. “I can’t not try and talk to her, so I’d better know everything.” And hope that Momma hasn’t completely gone out of her gourd… and that somehow, I can explain Red to Tavia. “Besides,” she continued slowly, softly. “We got a lot t’ talk about.”

~~~~~~~

Octavia’s voice was practically a snarl as she spoke. “And just what do you think you were doing with my marefriend?” The words came out like spitting nails as she practically slammed the door behind her, glad for a few moments of privacy. She certainly didn’t need Auntie Eleonore stepping in and smacking her for being rude. “And just who in the name of Celestia’s plothole do you think you are, dragging her around like that?” Certainly she was already confusing her own words in her anger -

The beautiful red mare sat upon a deeply cushioned love seat with a careless grace that Octavia was instantly jealous of. She carried herself with such total poise and confidence that it was conjuring some rather lewd thoughts about the pegasus female in Octavia’s mind in spite of her momentary outburst. That was…. more than a little concerning. I am in love with Vinyl, no matter how much this mare might attract me… my heart belongs to her. Which was a lovely sentimental thought, but raw sexuality was raw sexuality.

That did not mean she would act on said urges, but it also did not mean she wouldn’t very much like to. “You’ll have to forgive me, Miss Octavia,” the pegasus mare practically purred at her, her voice soft and sultry and her gaze blatantly roving over Octavia’s slim form. “Two-tone was always terrible with correspondence, and had I known you two were…” She arched an eyebrow, her smile curving up just a little. “...together, then I would have been a shade more circumspect.”

Octavia took a very short moment to tell her libido and her anger to shut the buck up before responding verbally, “Well, I suppose that’s not unreasonable.” She sighed, rubbing at her temple gently. Vinyl hadn’t wanted to talk about her time here very much, and the reason was now painfully clear. This mare had obviously meant a very great deal to her, and Vinyl had once again bone-headedly tried to protect Octavia from her own emotions. If she didn’t love her so very much, Octavia would have given her quite the talking to… as it was, there was only going to be a mild scolding. Well, mild-ish. “I apologize for my less than polite initial words to you.” At the very least, she could be polite.

But the mare waved her hoof airily. “No harm done, Miss Octavia. It certainly was far from the worst I’ve had levelled at me, given my profession. My name is Red Velvet, and I was a close friend of Two-tone during her time here, as well as something of a mentor in the carnal arts.” There was a glitter of some hidden emotion in those deep eyes - and Octavia had to wonder if ‘friend’ was all that Red Velvet had been to Vinyl.

The mare’s white mane seemed to glitter in the dim light as she uncoiled from her sitting position, laying one hoof upon the ground and then the other, striding toward Octavia with just the barest twitch to her hips. “You must understand, Miss Octavia…. Two-tone is quite precious to me. Her happiness has always been foremost in my mind since the day I saw her weeping for all she had lost…” Red Velvet’s voice was soft and smooth as she came to within touching distance of Octavia, her eyes shining… and Octavia could not mistake the little glitter of tears in the corner of her eye. “And for her, I would do anything… to keep her happy.”

Red Velvet’s hoof came up and traced down Octavia’s cheek, shocking her out of her momentary surprise at the sensual assault of the beautiful pegasus mare before her. Octavia swallowed the lump in her throat and firmed her resole. “I love Vinyl, Miss Velvet. And we are quite happy together.” She stood her ground and tried focus on firming up her resolve. “You need not concern yourself with that.”

Every movement the mare made exuded a powerful, potent sexuality that Octavia had almost never experienced before… and even then, had only done so in Vinyl’s presence. “I would not do anything to make her unhappy,” Octavia continued, swallowing the dryness in her throat and feeling slightly relieved to see Red pause in her movement as her back hit the doorway of the private lounge.

Red smiled faintly. “Yes, I can see that. That’s why I’d like to try to negotiate with you.” She tossed her mane sexily, half lidding her eyes. “I very much doubt Two-tone has changed all that much in the past few years, and I’m certain that she would not mind sharing her affections with the both of us.” Her eyes sparkled with determination as she continued to advance. “But since you are clearly the first mare in her heart, I’d merely like to show you what I can provide on my end of the bargain.”

Octavia took in a deep breath and exhaled. “I love her and only her, Miss Velvet,” she insisted again, trying to get control of the situation and her emotions and wondering what kind of spell this crazy pegasus was weaving upon her.

Red Velvet giggled. “What’s love got to do with a good time between two beautiful mares?” She humphed, cocking her head to one side. “I don’t need to be in love with you to be willing to pass a lovely evening with you, nor do I need to in order to be with the mare I truly love.” Her lips turned into as faint smile. “Besides, if you’re anything like Two-tone said you were, I’ve a feeling I will fall for you in due time as it is.”

That floored her pretty badly. Just what had Vinyl told this mare about her? But just as it stunned her into speechlessness, it was also enough to get her wits together. “I do understand what it is like to have somepony you love walk away from you, Miss Velvet.” She kept her voice quiet and polite as she could. “But whatever may have existed between you and Vinyl has long since passed.” She adroitly pulled herself away from the mare and moved as quickly as she could toward the door, trying to believe her own words as she moved. Surely Vinyl could not still be infatuated with this mare, could she?

Behind her, Red Velvet spoke softly. “Then I’d recommend you ask her what she said to me before she left.” The words hit her with the force of a blow to the head, but Octavia kept walking. She had to find Vinyl, and she did have to speak to her about all of this before her pretty little mind lost her will to keep moving through this madhouse.