Broken strings

After being convinced by Vinyl, Octavia decided to put this new style of music into one of her performances and it caused a HUGE stir among the crowd. Word spread around town quickly. More and more ponies had heard about this unique style of Octavia, and soon Octavia found herself dealing with endless invitations to shows and fan mail. She had become quite busy with all this new public attention, so she had to spend a good portion of her free time composing music and practicing. Vinyl also had to work as a DJ to earn some bits so she didn't have to rely on Octavia for food, though she still had to come over about once a month to have dinner with Octavia. Octavia, on the other hand, didn't mind letting her friend mooch off of her every once in a while. After all, Vinyl was the one who inspired and helped her to gain her bigger audience. Octavia had saved up quite a fortune from all the shows she had been playing.

But still, Octavia thought that she needed to see Vinyl more often. It’s not like Octavia needed Vinyl's help to write her music or anything... It's just that Octavia hadn't seen Vinyl for a while and she missed her. She missed her a bit too much.

A strange thought struck Octavia, but she quickly shoved it to the back of her mind. "We are just normal friends, close, but... just good friends," Octavia said to herself, picked up her cello and bow, held them in place and started practicing.

But the thought came back to her, and her mind started to drift away from cello practice. "What if... what if she is actually in love with Vinyl? That can't be..." Octavia thought.

The notes she played were a bit off pitch, but she was too caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't even notice. "Vinyl is my best friend, and its only normal for friends to miss each other, but do other fillies have the same feeling?" Octavia asked herself. She remembered how much happiness she felt when she was with Vinyl, laughing and chatting. She remembered how disappointed and sorrowful she was when she had to wave goodbye to Vinyl. All the symptoms pointed to the same conclusion; they pointed somewhere that Octavia was a bit too scared to reach.

She stopped the bow and sighed. Her hoof was a bit tired from holding the bow, so she decided to give herself a short tea break. She stood in the hallway of her kitchen looking for her beloved tea pot, although her mind was still on the same subject trying to find a reason for her silly behavior other than love.

She filled the tea pot with water and put it on the stove. After a while, the water started boiling so she turned off the heat, put some tea leaves in a small cup, and lifted up the tea pot with her muzzle. However, still thinking about her relationship with Vinyl, Octavia failed to notice the little crack on the hoofle (Note: Something us humans call a ‘handle’) of the tea cup. And as she applied force, with the sound of broken glass, the hoofle broke off the tea pot and the pot fell onto the kitchen table. It immediately broke into pieces and hot, boiling water EXPLODED. Octavia took a step back out of instinct, but she wasn’t quick enough to dodge all the hot water. A large amount of boiling water ran down her front left leg and left a trail of painful red on her light, grey skin.

“AHH!”

Two hours later, Octavia was sitting on a bed in the hospital. Her neighbor had heard the broken glass and her scream. They rushed over and quickly took Octavia to the nearest hospital. After checking her in, Octavia gave them Vinyl’s number. They called Vinyl and she arrived in less than 5 minutes.

Vinyl smashed the door open, sprinted into the room and grabbed the doctor’s shirt just as he was about to leave with magic. “Is she going to be okay, doc?” she asked with anxiety.

“She is going to be FINE.” The doctor pushed Vinyl aside, stopping her magic and fixing his coat. “Luckily she was sent here in time, so I doubt if this little accident will even leave a scar. She just has to stay here for about a week, and then she will be back on stage in no time.”

With these convincing words, he left the room to watch over some of his other patients. Octavia’s neighbor had already left, so Octavia was in the room with Vinyl, and Vinyl only. That fact alone made Octavia blush slightly.

Vinyl took a seat at a nearby chair, took off her glasses and let out a long “Whew.” She said, “Okay, what the heck happened?”

“The tea pot broke when I was making tea.”

“Aww, I told you to replace that old thing. You could have really hurt yourself.”

Octavia wanted to yell something about the pot being classical and original, but her lips froze when her vision met Vinyl’s.  Vinyl’s red eyes were filled with a mixture of anger and worry, and Octavia felt as if that vision was going to burn a hole in her heart.

“I am… sorry.” Octavia looked down at her front hoof, which was wrapped in bandages.

“You are usually pretty careful, are you sure you're okay? You sure you don’t have a fever or anything?”

“I am fine, thank you.”

Then Octavia’s brain froze. Vinyl stood up from the chair, walked towards Octavia, and put her muzzle on top of Octavia’s forehead. To Octavia, it was almost like a good night kiss except that it was not from her grandma, but from the best friend who she had mixed feeling towards.

They froze there for what felt like ages and when Vinyl finally moved away, Octavia’s face was unavoidably blushing so much that she felt like she was going to pass out.

“Your temperature seems fine though… but really Octavia, you need to be more careful. For a second there, I thought your career was going to end.”

Octavia felt slightly disappointed, though she didn't know why or what she was expecting. She couldn’t tell Vinyl either, she thought, because she couldn't expect Vinyl to accept the truth before she had admitted it to herself.

“Well, do you need anything? Like water or food? Or…” Vinyl paused, with a look on her face as if she was hiding a huge secret.

Octavia lifted her eyebrow.

“Some booze?” Vinyl took out a bottle of sweet apple fruit wine from behind her.

“Vinyl, this is a HOSPITAL! And no, I would not drink that. It does not quite fit my taste. I usually drink something less… childish.”

“Aw come on! It’s really good, I promise! Just give it a try. Besides, it’s only your hoof. You can drink some to lighten up your mood a bit,” Vinyl encouraged.

Thinking that Vinyl did have a good point, Octavia took the glass of dark-orange, yet see-through liquid from Vinyl. She lifted it in front of her eyes, looked at the texture of the liquid, and then put it under her muzzle to smell it.

Vinyl giggled, “Don’t worry Octavia, I didn’t poison it.”

“I am not suspecting you. I just enjoy tasting the alcohol, instead of just pouring it down like somepony I know,” Octavia said, glancing at Vinyl.

Vinyl was pouring apple wine into her mouth and she choked a bit at Octavia’s words. She lowered the bottle and said, “Hey! *cough* I can taste the wine, too.”

Octavia gave Vinyl a little smile and then held the glass to her lips to take a sip. The liquid was not what she usually drank, but it wasn’t as bad as she had imagined. Instead of the usual burning sensation, she felt a smooth and sweet flavor around her tongue.

Octavia turned to Vinyl and said, “Hmm, this isn’t half bad,” holding her glass of wine in her hooves and whirling it around.

“See, I told ya!” By this point, Vinyl was already done with her entire bottle. She threw the bottle into the garbage can and burped a little.

Octavia looked at Vinyl with disgust. Vinyl realized her look, narrowed her eyes, gave a sigh and said, “EXCUSE ME! There, happy?”

Octavia lifted her eyebrow. “Yes.” And she went back to tasting her drink.

Vinyl stayed and chatted for a little while longer, but it had begun to get dark so the nurse came in and told Vinyl that she had to leave. The nurse then sniffed and frowned. For a few seconds, Octavia thought that she was going to get in trouble for drinking, but it seemed the nurse thought that the alcohol smell was from medical procedures. Thankfully, the nurse left without suspicion.

Vinyl stood up and said, “Well, it’s time for me to go. Dun worry Octy, I will come back tomorrow.”

“Thanks Vinyl, that would really mean a lot to me,” Octavia said, sincerely.

“Don’t sweat it. Just remember; if someday I get sick, you gotta come and visit me too. And bring booze too.”

They both laughed, then Vinyl waved goodbye and walked out of the room. Octavia kept waving until Vinyl’s white body disappeared down the hallway and then her smile slowly faded.

With a little sigh, she decided to not bother thinking about Vinyl and her. She put out the light, placed her injured hoof carefully on top of the blanket so it wouldn't get crushed by her own weight, and then she slowly fell asleep.