The greyish-brown pony with the white mane sat at the bar with what was either his second or third salt lick of the night. He’d been here for the last hour or so, gingerly licking the salt block and washing it down with some fruit-flavored martini that both helped and hindered his thought processes. If he had to choose between being drunk and being dehydrated, he preferred drunk.

All around him were signs of a thriving Canterlot nightlife. Ponies gathered around tables filled with salt blocks and celery sticks, fruit martinis and cheese platters. A fair amount of the males wore collars and bow ties, and some had suits that covered their front halves, while the females were dresses and necklaces and small rings that were fitted around the base of their tales. The bar was alive with chatter and excitement in the late hour – a clock on the wall heralded almost eleven-thirty – and it seemed to only be getting fuller.

Despite the bar’s excitement, the tan pony sat alone on a stool at the counter. All around him, groups of ponies were chatting excitedly amongst themselves, but they never paid him attention. He didn’t look around the bar and wasn’t waiting for something. He just came here to relax. To wind down.

Despite not looking for company, he was joined anyways. The pony in question was a blue stallion with a mane that matched his coat. He pulled up a stool alongside the pony and ordered a fruit martini and a small plate of celery with honey mustard. The order came and the pony began eating.

Without looking towards the other pony, the blue stallion spoke up. “Long night, Frederic? I heard you were at the concert hall at eight in the morning.”

The greyish-brown pony nodded. “I couldn’t get that fugue right,” he said. “I spent all morning and almost all afternoon just to provide a passable performance.”

The blue stallion scoffed. “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” he said. “I thought it was fantastic. And so did the audience.”

“Don’t patronize me, Noteworthy,” Frederic replied, nearly spitting out his words. “It was merely passable compared to the likes of Bach. If I had even one tenth of Bach’s skill, that fugue would be one of the greatest masterpieces any pony has ever played in our time.”

“You’re not Bach, though,” Noteworthy responded. “You don’t have to be. I mean, that little bit around the one minute mark was rather prettily done and that wasn’t even in Bach’s original score.”

Frederic sighed. “I had to add it in. I can’t do it without those touches. If I have those touches included, I can play the piece and not have it feel like some mediocre work.”

“Mediocre,” Noteworthy laughed. “You don’t realize your own worth, you know that?”

Frederic looked over to Noteworthy. “My worth?”

“Yeah. I mean, look at you. Every night for the past year after a performance, you come in here and lament how you couldn’t get something right or can’t measure up to the greats.”

“How do you not have that problem? How come you don’t come here afterwards in attempt to drink your sorrows? You’re happy as soon as you get in here if you’ve hit a flat note or not.”

“Because it’s over,” Noteworthy said. “So I may have hit a flat note in Straus’ Concerto in A minor, but that’s one note. I just tell myself I need to practice that part more for next time.”

“You should be practicing every part every time,” Frederic said sternly.

“Oh, lighten up!” Noteworthy said, gently pushing the tan pony. “That’s part of why you’re so stressed. You do every single piece over and over again until you can do it with your eyes closed. But it takes so much work. All of us have sheet music to follow along and remember our notes. That’s what it’s for. Our work is to make sure our hooves can follow the tempo and pattern, not to memorize them from beginning to end.”

Frederic finished off his martini and emitted a loud sigh.

“How about a rum on the rocks?” Noteworthy asked. “My treat.”

Frederic nodded. “I could use something stiff.”

The bartender was flagged down and two short, stumpy glasses of a deep brown liquid in ice came out. Frederic took a few quick sips and soon had half the glass drained. Noteworthy took a sip and still had a fair ways to go.

“So you’re not mad about a damn thing,” Frederic said.

“Oh, I’m mad,” Noteworthy said. “Straus’ Concerto is normally a rather easy piece for me. I just fell into a pattern and forgot about that note. I shouldn’t have missed it. But I just tell myself I need to pay more attention.”

Frederic sighed. “I bet the conductor is mad at me. That flourish I had wasn’t in the score.”

“He loved it,” Noteworthy said. He took another sip of his rum. “They all do.”

Frederic sighed.

“Your place or mine?” Noteworthy asked.

“I don’t want to tonight,” Frederic groaned.

“You need it,” Noteworthy said. “You’re beating yourself up more than normal. You need to de-stress.”

“I’m fine,” Frederic said irritably. “I just need to finish this rum, take a cold shower, and sleep it off. It’s late, is all.”

“If I find you in the concert hall tomorrow morning, I will make sure that Octavia knows.”

Frederic, who had been rubbing his forehead with a hoof, stopped and looked over to Noteworthy fearfully. “You wouldn’t dare…”

“I can easily tell her about it. Or I could send a letter to Luna. Perhaps some dream therapy would work.”

“No, please,” Frederic said. “I don’t want it to go public. Or have the concert hall locked up where I can’t practice.”

“So, you want to do my place or yours?”

Frederic sighed. “Yours. I’m supposed to have family tomorrow evening and I can’t spend the time—”

Noteworthy nodded. “I understand completely,” he said, cutting his partner off. “Let’s finish our drinks and head over there, shall we?”

Frederic and Noteworthy finished their final sips of rum. Noteworthy paid for the drinks and his celery plate and the two retreated outside of the bar into the quiet, dark streets of Canterlot. The two walked without a word, heading along the streets to a quiet avenue away from the city center and the concert hall.

Noteworthy’s place was rather modest. It was a single floor and filled with posters of jazz musicians and art deco pieces. His furniture was sparse and simplistic, holding a couch in his living room, a small table in his kitchen, and a bed and vanity in his bedroom. The place was painted in warm golds and soft reds, with a touch of purple and blue here and there. The atmosphere calmed Frederic and he sighed almost as soon as he stepped through the familiar doorway.

“You want to take a shower first or later?” Noteworthy asked.

“Later,” Frederic replied.

Noteworthy grinned. “Come on, then. No time to waste.” And he pranced off to the bedroom.

Frederic followed, a groan coming from his mouth as he simply walked along the corridor. How he’d put up with this the last seven months astounded him, and yet not a single bone in his body was regretting what he was about to do.

By the time he had made his way to the bedroom, Noteworthy had already taken off his simple blue bowtie and collar and was sprawled out on his back on the bed. Frederic made something of a show of taking off his coat, unbuttoning it, wiggling his hooves out then bucking it across the room. He crawled on top of Noteworthy and felt something fleshy touch his coat.

“You’re already excited?” he asked disbelievingly.

“You’re not?” Noteworthy replied with almost the same tone, though Frederic noticed a sly smile on his face.

Before Frederic could respond, Noteworthy had taken his face in both of his hooves and pulled it towards him. Frederic only had a moment’s time to prepare before their lips touched. The greyish-brown stallion could hardly keep his tense glare as Noteworthy gently teased him, putting his tongue along his lips and begging for entrance through his teeth.

Noteworthy’s hooves left Frederic’s face and the stallion felt his partner’s hooves begin to gently massage his back, though one went down and went between them and stroked just above his balls. As though it was a signal, Frederic let his mouth slacken and allowed Noteworthy entrance into his mouth. He could feel the other stallion’s tongue gently caressing his own as he wrapped his arms around the blue stallion’s neck. Noteworthy gave an involuntary buck, but that didn’t stop either of them from closing their eyes in ecstasy and Frederic began fighting Noteworthy’s tongue out of his mouth.

It wasn’t long before all of Frederic’s stresses had melted away into the softness of Noteworthy’s own coat and bed and the warmth of his friend’s embrace. Already he had forgotten the stresses of his work, the melancholy he’d felt at his performance, and was already preparing himself for the next phase. Noteworthy gave off another buck, then another, and Frederic soon felt his own member slowly sliding out and alongside Noteworthy’s, causing them both to groan and moan yet neither pulled away even as Noteworthy ejaculated and soon coated both of their stomachs in sticky white cum.

It wasn’t long before Frederic had backed off a few inches. His dick was already dripping with the cum caused by Noteworthy’s skillful touch, and he slowly, carefully, inserted his member into Noteworthy. The blue stallion was going crazy and Frederic could see his partner's dick standing almost fully at attention, and gently placed his hoof to it and began to stroke it, feeling the smooth, soft texture as he felt more and more of his dick go up Noteworthy's asshole. It was only when his dick was completely inside Noteworthy that he stopped touching Noteworthy and collapsed on him, already feeling exhausted.

"You're not done yet, are you, big boy?" Noteworthy said, face still holding that shit-eating grin.

"No," Frederic said, panting with both exhaustion and lust. "I haven't started performing yet."

Noteworthy was about to respond, but Frederic pulled out just a little bit then bucked hard into Noteworthy. The stallion flinched momentarily before his eyes went wide open and he gasped. Noteworthy's eyes rolled back in ecstasy as Frederic started to pull out just a little bit, taking his time and slowly backing up before swinging back forward. He repeated the motion again and again, allowing himself to move in a gentle, even, perfectly-timed swing. Noteworthy was trembling and writhing underneath him, each buck causing him more and more pleasure and a growing warmth and caused him to cum again.

After a while, Frederic slowly leaned backwards. He himself was trembling now and was quite pleased to see his friend looking as though he could barely see straight. With one final swing he rammed hard into Noteworthy's behind and came, causing himself to fall over trembling on Noteworthy as the stallion shivered and shook violently beneath him. It wasn't long, however, before both had settled down in the darkening room and were laying on their sides facing the other.

"There," Noteworthy said, panting. "Don't you feel better?"

There was no doubt in his mind that Frederic did. Yet the greyish-brown stallion almost looked like he was about to cry.

"Well?" Noteworthy asked. "Aren't you feeling better?"

Frederic burst out laughing. "I missed the final note. I came too early before I'd finished that final buck."

Author's Note

...what the actual *yay* did I just do?

NOTE: capriccio (music) - a humorous, fanciful, or bizarre composition, often characterized by an idiosyncratic departure from current stylistic norms.