In a Cello Mood

Dear Diary,

Thank Celestia we made her leave. Well, Octavia’s mom made her leave. But she made her leave on the promise that she could be back today. I don’t want to see my mother. Ever. Especially after… How could she bring it up… How could she? She fucking shouldn’t have!

Needless to say, even in Octavia’s embrace, I didn’t sleep. Now I can only hope that I can have my breakfast in peace before she comes again…

***

Vinyl couldn’t have her breakfast in peace. The tension was electrifying. She, by Octavia’s side, sipping coffee - or, rather, trying to. Octavia, looking at the guest with ill-concealed anger and disgust. Unperturbed Jeffrey. And, of course, the smiling face of Octavia’s mother, her emotions concealed beneath the mask of politeness.

“Would you like some more tea, Miss Staccato?” Jeffrey asked with cold politeness, taking a step towards Vinyl’s mother with the teapot. For a moment, he glanced at the DJ with an unreadable expression that gave Vinyl neither confidence nor serenity.

“Missis Staccato,” Vinyl’s mother corrected with a sickly frown, accepting the tea for granted. “My husband may be in custody but he is still alive.” With that, she took up the cup with dignity, the kind of dignity that only comes with maturing late, in an abusive relationship, after years of wasting your life in a poor district without a father figure by your side.

“Dad is in custody?” Vinyl’s mouth dropped open - and her heart fluttered in glee. I hope they beat him up real bad there… Maybe they’ll kill him? A little devil in Vinyl’s head nodded: Hope so too! A little angel in Vinyl’s head frowned: Maybe they’ll… kill him nicely?

“Don’t act so surprised, dear,” Vinyl’s mother emphasised, taking a sip of her tea, scrunching her face at Jeffrey, who, she realised, had poured the tea cold. “His lawyer gave the prosecution proof that Immanuel is guilty of tax evasion.”

“Well, that’s cause he is!” Vinyl grinned in her mother’s face, feeling a little bolder with Octavia’s hoof in her lap. Bolder, and a little horny. Okay, more than a little. Okay, a lot. One way or another, she knew just what she would do once this whole thing was over. And it better involve the riding crop. “I’m glad he’s going to prison.”

“Such insolence!” The fat mare shook her head. “He put bread and butter on your table. He gave you a flat where you could live till you grew eighteen!”

“Well,” Vinyl countered boldly, “I am eighteen now and I don’t need your bread and butter and your flat. I have Octavia, and yes I like mares!” With that, Vinyl kissed her marefriend on the lips, evoking a gasp from her mother. Octavia blinked, surprised but content.

“Vinyl, let’s not turn this into a show,” Octavia’s mother pleaded - even though a tiny smile on her face mixed strangely with pride in her eyes. “Eleanore, would you like some sugar with your tea?”

“Eleanore?” Octavia blinked, looking first at her mother, then at Vinyl’s. “Your mother’s name is also Eleanore?” This was… blasphemy. It seemed obscene. This mare, who’d tortured Vinyl, albeit mentally - and this was still a valid form of torture - couldn’t share a name with her mother, kind, gentle, and caring. She just… couldn’t.

“I will be back.” The wrong Eleanore stood up and headed for the exit.

“I don’t think so,” Octavia spoke up, getting up as well, releasing the pleasant pressure on Vinyl’s lap. “You are seriously wrong if you think I will allow somepony who calls Vinyl bad names into our house!”

Vinyl’s smugness disappear in a matter of seconds. She looked at Octavia with fear and opened her mouth, but the wrong Eleanore had already begun speaking.

“Oh, really? Remember when we took Melody on vacation, Vinyl?”

Vinyl shook her head, shutting her eyes tight, and shook and shook her head and hoped it would pop off.

“We told you you weren’t invited.” Vinyl’s mother smiled an oily smile. “But you sneaked in on the vacation, Vinyl, didn’t you?”

“Shut up.” Vinyl took a deep breath. “Shut up.”

“You were always jealous of Melody, Vinyl. You knew there were cliffs down there.”

“Shut up shut up shut up!”

“You said, ‘Hey, I’ve got your back’. Didn’t you, Vinyl? And then she jumped, and-”

Vinyl screamed and ran into the older mare, pinning her to the floor, her hooves pounding the flesh of the mare automatically, destroying bones, leaving horrific bruises. “Shut up shut up shut up!” Vinyl kept yelling while Eleanore and Jeffrey tried, vainly, to get her off the wrong Eleanore. Nothing could help, and Vinyl already lowered her horn and pointed it at her mother.

Nothing could help - apart from a grey hoof gently pressing on Vinyl’s shoulder. “Vinyl, love, don’t.”

Vinyl stopped and looked at Octavia helplessly. The grey mare took her marefriend in her hooves and began planting soothing kisses on her muzzle. “She’s not worth it, love,” Octavia whispered into Vinyl’s ear, nibbling on it. “She’s not worth it.” Repeating that, the cellist slowly took her DJ away upstairs, while Jeffrey ran for the ambulance.

In a while, there was only silence, and small, quiet sobs coming from the bedroom.

***

If she is alive, I will murder her myself.

How dare she-! Do this to my Vinyl. How dare she do this to my Vinyl?!! Accusing her of… But if Vinyl got so angry over it, doesn’t that mean that… No, of course not. I will talk to her tomorrow and everything will be just fine. Vinyl, stop looking over my sho-

I KILLED MELODY I KILLED MELODY I KILLED MELODY I KILL-

Vinyl, stop!

O.P., November 20th