In a Cello Mood

Dear Diary,

I am a fixer! I am the best fixer pony in all of Equestria! Who’s a fixer mare? I’m a fixer mare! Who can fix all of her problems? This mare right here! You may wonder how I manage to be so cool, Diary, and I have a reply: because I’m the Awesomare! Rivalry with Beauty? Tame and laughable. Relationship issues with Vinyl? Psh, all in the past! An F because of skipped test? ...Well, screw it anyway!

Because I am - nananananana - Batma- and I can’t really say that.

***

“We’re not going to talk about it.”

Octavia took a sip of tea, feeling like a lady of the highest calibre, while the little pony in her head sipped on her own little cup of tea, holding a monocle. Quite. Another little pony peeked in curiously. “Quite” what? Octavia blinked, wondering what the hell was wrong with her mind. “Not gonna talk about what?” she asked as innocently as she could, shooing the little ponies in her head away before they started making out.

“About you sleeping with me,” Beauty replied sternly, looking at her orange juice with a sour expression. “If you ever want to finish this project with me, we’re not going to talk about last night.” With that, the mare reached for the glass and drank the juice greedily.

“Pickle brine,” Octavia suggested, catching a glance of the hostess’s dismayed condition. “It really does help against hangovers.” She took one more sip of the tea, feeling quite all right. Am I getting so used to drinking that I no longer have hangovers?..

Beauty looked at her in disbelief, her eyes spelling out, Why are you helping me? Still, the hostess nodded slowly, probably making a mental check on the list of her hangover cures. “Thank you.”

“Beauty, I’ve been meaning to ask,” Octavia began, fishing out her diary from her saddlebag, suspicion and interest crawling upon her in equal proportions. “A page from my diary is missing and-”

“I didn’t read it!” Beauty blurted out, her eyes shifting from Octavia to the diary. “I just took a page for, uh, for writing down sheet music.” The blue mare nodded resolutely. “Oh yes, I wrote, uh, some sheet music and tore it, sorry for that.”

“Oh.” Octavia put the diary back in its rightful place. “So…” She smiled knowingly. “If I ask to take a look at that sheet music…”

“No.”

Octavia nodded, her eyes shining with laughter and understanding. “But of course.” Yes, tell yourself you didn’t like it! the little pony in her head proclaimed. Didn’t like what? the other little pony blinked. “Shall we go to uni?”

“Together?” Beauty’s face quickly gained a very rosy tint. “You and me, go to uni, together?” she clarified, drawing circles with her hoof on the table. “Uh, I mean, with such a nerd! And, and- uh!” She waved her hoof, looking away from the grey mare.

The cellist just shrugged. “We could leave your house with a half-hour interval and pretend we never met last night, or we could be mature about this and just walk to uni like two ponies who are partners.”

“P-partners?” Beauty held her breath, then released it. “Of course. I’m the senior partner here, obviously.”

“No doubt about that,” Octavia said with a smile. “So, we gonna be mature about it and walk to uni together?”

***

Well, having to leave half an hour early not to be seen with Beauty wasn’t that bad, Octavia had to admit. She had enough time to walk along the empty corridors of the university and see portraits of different composers and honour students who later became prominent musicians.

Not meeting Vinyl was also nice. Octavia had no idea how to feel about the whole ordeal. On the one hoof, she was still angry at Vinyl for that kiss. On the other hoof, she silently realised that it wasn’t Vinyl’s fault, and that she, Octavia, had probably overreacted. Nah, you didn’t, the little pony in Octavia’s head assured her.

What was not nice was seeing the results of yesterday’s test. Which she had skipped. And for which she had got an F - which, again, was not surprising, considering that she had skipped the test.

Octavia groaned and stared at the paper pinned to the dean’s office information stand. Conflicting emotions washed over her: she was confused, for she had been sure she would be given an option to rewrite the test at some other date; she was a little scared, both for getting her first F and because of the possible reaction from her mother and especially Jeffrey; and she was calm enough, maybe because she was thinking about Vinyl, and it didn’t really matter what grades she was getting after all all of this wasn’t necessary if she couldn’t have Vinyl by her side she needed to find her and apologise for good and talk out the situation and was she hyperventilating?

Octavia stumbled into the bathroom, immediately reaching the sink and looking at her reflection in the mirror, her head spinning. I really need to get a hold of myself. She turned on the tap and washed her face with cold water, feeling slightly better.

“Tavi?”

Octavia jerked up, closing the tap swiftly, as if she was doing something shameful. Vinyl was standing before her, looking at her with those sad magenta eyes. “Vinyl…” Octavia whispered, taking a step back, letting the unicorn to the sink.

“How has it been,” Vinyl asked quietly, looking at their reflections in the mirror, addressing Octavia’s reflection, “sleeping far away from home?”

“Better than sleeping with an adulterer,” Octavia blurted out, taking a defensive position, feeling it easier to look at her lover’s reflection than looking at her directly. What the hell am I saying? I wanted to make up with her!

“Do you have any idea,” Vinyl squinted her eyes, “how worried your mother was? How worried Jeffrey was? How worried I was?” She turned on the tap and washed her face slowly, expecting the reply.

“Vinyl…” Octavia shook her head, trying to avoid being blamed. “You and Neon kissed, and you didn’t tell me.” She tried to adopt a non-chiding, but rather an explanatory tone. “It’s not about you two kissing, it’s about you not being honest with me.”

“Oh!” Vinyl turned round, the brows on her face furrowing. “Being honest? Well, be honest with me, where did you spend last night?” Vinyl took a step forth, making Octavia counter the advancement with a step of her own.

“I was at Beauty’s!” Octavia replied, hoping that this alibi was self-explanatory. “See? I am honest. You aren’t!”

“At Beauty’s?!” Vinyl practically shrieked, taking another step, closing up on Octavia, their muzzles only a few centimetres from each other. “So you counter my mistake by fucking your arch-enemy?!”

“What?!” Octavia spat in shock, taking a step back, retreating from the battle. “I didn’t-! I was just spending the night! And you do realise it was your mistake, huh?”

“Octavia, you are unbelievable!” Vinyl growled, her hoof hitting her forehead just below the horn. “You are muttering something about Beauty and Neon and mistakes when you had your whole family worried about you, and you didn’t even try to tell us where you were and- and!” Vinyl groaned, taking another step towards Octavia. “I wish I could hit the stupid out of you!”

“Well!” Octavia growled back, her heart racing, her head dizzy. At the same time, she knew this was the time to apologise and back down, but sheer inertia was making her go on. Inertia? the little pony in her head enquired. Or is it your own agitation? “Maybe you should hit me! Adulterer and domestic abuser? Why the hell not?”

Vinyl stopped, and looked straight into Octavia’s eyes. The cellist breathed heavily, and could not decipher the emotion in those eyes, but she knew, right then, that she was wrong, that she could never be right before those eyes, that she could only try to be right, but that didn’t matter, because those eyes demanded honesty and love, not righteousness, and she loved those eyes, yes, she…

Vinyl slapped her across the face with a hoof, hard enough for Octavia to yelp.

The cellist lifted her head, looking at the white unicorn in disbelief. Yes, the slap was well-deserved, but… “V-Vinyl?..”

The white unicorn grabbed Octavia’s head and kissed her, deeply, passionately, like she’d never kissed her before. Octavia submitted meekly, feeling Vinyl’s tongue conquering her mouth like the rightful queen that was meant to rule over her, and was Vinyl pressing her against the wall? “Vinyl…”

The spinner broke the kiss and began to nuzzle Octavia beneath the ear, proceeding to peck her neck, showering her with tiny kisses of love and affection. Octavia sighed and relaxed into the embrace, for Vinyl was holding her tight, and why did she stop?, oh, she was leading her somewhere, waltzing her towards one of the cubicles, and inside, and closing the door behind them, why would she close the door behind them?

In a moment, as Vinyl lowered herself, kissing Octavia’s torso lower and lower, the cellist understood everything.

***

“I’m sorry, Vinyl.”

Octavia nuzzled into her lover’s embrace, lying awkwardly on Vinyl’s foreleg in their bed. “I’m so sorry. Let’s just be entirely honest with each other from now on.” She lifted her head hopefully. “Please, let’s just tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help us Celestia!”

“Okay, Tavi,” Vinyl said quietly, ruffling Octavia’s hair with her hoof. “It’s just that…” She sighed and shut her eyes. “After Melody, I’d never really had any friends, anypony I could be around, and it would feel easy and good… No,” she shushed the grey mare, “Let me finish. We’re not having sex so let me finish for once.” As Octavia’s face reddened extremely (while the little pony in her head drew a protest sign), Vinyl continued: “I mean, I have you, but it’s different. I love you, but I love you in… in a hot way, I guess. I want you. It’s different with Lyra and Bon-Bon too. They have each other, and… Look,” Vinyl sighed, “I really think Neon is a guy I can make friends with. I feel easy around him. I laugh at his jokes, and I like him without feeling attraction to him. I feel like this, this may be what I need after, well, after all those…” She gulped. “After all that time before I met you,” she finished lamely, but received a kiss on the cheek for trying.

“Love, I don’t doubt you now,” Octavia spoke earnestly, nuzzling into Vinyl’s armpit. “It’s just that I fear… I fear that it is Neon who has a view on you.” Vinyl chuckled. “What? Don’t mock me, I still think he only chose you because of your good looks!”

Vinyl burst out in laughter, her body wrecking with tiny laughsobs. “Oh, Octavia, that’s rich!”

“What?” Octavia huffed, tracing Vinyl’s side with a hoof. “He just saw you for the lean, sexy mare that you are and he, and he…”

“And he really didn’t.” Vinyl kept smiling at the silly mare. “Honestly, Octavia, haven’t you figured out?”

“What?” Octavia blinked dumbly.

Vinyl kissed Octavia on the forehead. “Neon’s blind.”

Octavia’s hoof had never hit her face so hard.

***

Okay, I am officially a stupid pony. I mean, I know I am not a clever pony, but I never thought I was a stupid pony. Okay, enough of that. Let’s see what we have achieved:

Apologised before Vinyl? Check.

Accepted Vinyl’s apology about slapping me? Check.

Cried in front of Mom and Jeffrey and begged for forgiveness like the little foal that I am? Check.

Kind of resolved the issue with Neon? Check.

Beauty doesn’t hate me as much as she used to? Erm. Kinda check. Even though Beauty sounds weird. And why the hay would she take a page from my diary?

She probably drew a penis or something. Ugh.

Well! An F for a test, how about that. And somehow I don’t feel bad about it. I mean, I dropped at the dean’s office and they told me this test can’t be rewritten… And I kinda realise that it may influence my future grades and my future with this university… But frankly?

I don’t give a buck.

Because I am by Vinyl’s side, and I love her, and she loves me, and I’ll wake up to the sound of Mom singing and see Jeffrey cooking - and there is nothing that can match this feeling.

A rather content Octavia, October 22nd