Broken strings

The following morning, Octavia woke up with a mixture of aches and pains. The mattress of the hospital bed was too thin to protect her back from the bed frame, and unfortunately the bed was rock hard. She felt as if her spine was going to crack in half, and she barely had enough courage to turn herself around. Her bones made a very uncomforting "crack" sound as she did a little stretch, but then she felt a bit of relief.

She looked at the clock hanging on the hospital wall. It was only 6 am. Octavia sighed and laid down, trying to get some more sleep even though she knew she couldn't. She laid there for a few hours with random thoughts sailing across her mind and then she heard a light knock on the door.

A voice asked quietly, "Hey Octavia! You awake?"

"Yes. I would have been woken up by that anyways."

Vinyl quietly opened the door and gave a little nervous smile. She then walked into the room and closed the door behind her.

"How've you been?" asked Vinyl, as she sat down next to Octavia.

"I'm feeling great, thank you. I think I will be able to check out of the hospital in just a few days."

"Awww, don't be in such a big rush. You need some time off work, anyways."

"Yeah, to relax. Not to be stuck in a hospital with NOTHING to do," Octavia thought, watching Vinyl as she walked over to the window and opened the curtain. The sun was high up in the sky, and opening the curtain flooded the room with warm, bright light. Vinyl then slightly opened the glass window to let in some fresh morning air, which made Octavia feel quite refreshed.

"So, wanna go out for a walk? I can go talk to the Doc and get you a wheel chair."

"I don't see a reason for why not. Better than being stuck in this room all day, after all."

Vinyl smiled and left. She returned with a wheelchair shortly after. Octavia was fine standing on three hooves, so she left the bed and settled herself into the wheelchair. Vinyl then grabbed the hoofles and started pushing Octavia out of the room, towards the little garden behind the hospital.

It was around 9 am on a Saturday morning, so Ponyville was nice and quiet. There wasn't the usual hoof clopping or chatting like during the middle of the day; there were only the sounds of wind rustling the grass and the chattering of birds. There was also a chance to occasionally see a few beautiful butterflies resting on the tiny red flowers of the garden every once in a while. There were some that morning, but they fluttered away a bit at the sight of Vinyl and Octavia approaching.

"See, isn't this nice," Vinyl commented.

"Yeah, this is quite amazing," Octavia responded, taking a deep breath of the fresh air filled with the smell of grass and flowers.

They trotted through the flowers and around the fountain. Octavia then raised her hoof and pointed to a long bench on the side of the grass.

"Let's take a break there."

"All right." said Vinyl, as she pushed Octavia over to the bench. Vinyl  turned Octavia around so that she could have a better view of the whole garden, and then settled herself down on the bench.

"Vinyl, thank you for all this work."

"No prob. You're not heavy at all. Much lighter than the DJ booth or my bass cannon."

"Your bass... what?"

"Nothing... So, how is... the weather?"

Octavia shot a puzzled look at Vinyl, who replied with a wide, forced smile.

"The weather is... lovely."

"Yeah, it's quite a nice day." Vinyl stared at two butterflies dancing around each other.

There was a moment of silence as they were both trying to figure out an appropriate thing to say.

"Vinyl..."

"Octavia..."

They both called each other's name at the same time. They fell silent for a short while, trying to understand what just happened, and then they both burst out into laughter.

"Wow... okay you go first, Octavia."

"No... you go first."

Vinyl took a deep breath.

"Well, ya see... we've been friends for what, eight years now?"

"Yeah..."

This didn't sound good. Octavia bit the bottom half of her lips, trying her best to hide her worry. She didn't want to be to possessive of Vinyl; after all, they were just friends. Octavia felt like if Vinyl had something that she wanted to go after, she should have the freedom to do so. However, Octavia still felt that whatever Vinyl was about to say was going to change everything forever, and that fact alone scared Octavia.

"Well, it's really hard to break it to you...but..."

Literally millions of thoughts crossed Octavia's mind. If Vinyl was this serious about something, what could it be? Did Vinyl notice Octavia's unusual behavior towards her, and want to break free from it? Had she found a new coltfriend and she was going to tell Octavia about it? Was she going to move out of Ponyville because of career or family reasons? Octavia felt like sorrow was beginning to clog up her chest, making it hard to breathe.

Vinyl sighed and said, "I... I don't know how to put this Octavia. I've been wanting to say this for a long time, but I was afraid of... hurting you."

Octavia felt the thin layer of glass breaking inside her chest. After all, mare-with-mare love was not right. "I guess this is the way it's supposed to be," thought Octavia.

"Don't worry Vinyl, it's all right. I think I know what you mean."

"You do?"

"Sure. Just go on and do as you wish, I will be fine with it."

Vinyl sprung from the bench and jumped into the air. She was filled with so much joy that she barely noticed the slight sadness in Octavia's smile. Vinyl bounced around the fountain in circles while Octavia sat in her wheelchair, smiling with her heart almost broken at the sight. Their love ended before it had even started. Octavia felt as if her heart had been ripped in two with the pain of losing a closest friend, and the sorrow of not having much of a choice. The worst part was that Vinyl didn't seem to have noticed Octavia's feelings at all.

Octavia was so caught up in her own depression that she didn't even notice that Vinyl had stopped jumping and now stood directly in front of her. All she recognized was that somepony, Vinyl most likely, had put a hoof underneath her jaw and lifted her head up a little bit. She looked up and saw Vinyl holding out a hoof, smiling back at her. Vinyl was oddly close, just inches away. Octavia was even able to feel the warmth from Vinyl's breath.

Then, Vinyl took off her glasses, closed her eyes, and moved forward. Her muzzle touched Octavia's, then she moved down and to the side a little and gave Octavia a gentle kiss on the cheek.

Octavia's brain went blank. It wasn't as if she was worried about what would happen next, it's just that her brain simply stopped working at this unexpected turn of events. She sat in her chair as Vinyl jumped back in place, looking at her shocked face, curiously.

"I thought you were cool with us being... more than just friends and stuff."

"Oh...I am... I was just a bit unprepared." Octavia replied, trying to hide her embarrassment.

Vinyl giggled. "You're so adorable when you're surprised." She moved closer again and gave Octavia a tight hug.

"AND when you're shy and pretending that you aren't embarrassed."

"Shut up, Vinyl.."