Only a Quarter

Eighth Note woke up to the feel of a soft muzzle pressed against her neck, lightly nuzzling her in consciousness. The other pony’s body was warm and so irresistibly soft that, without opening her eyes, she wrapped her arms around the other mare. “Good Morning.” She mumbled, her voice husky.

“Good morning.” The other mare responded.

The pressure on Eighth Note’s chest lightened motivating her to finally open her eyes. Looking past unruly locks, her sight was met with a dark grey pony with snow white strands framing a smiling face. Two elegant pegasus wings were spread out behind her, fluttering every so often. Bright, forest-green eyes twinkled, half lidded under a sultry stare.

Eighth Note smirked, propping herself up on an elbow to kiss the pony on the lips tenderly. “I’m guessing you slept well."

The grey pegasus rolled off her lover before sauntering towards her vanity mirror, taking care to put a bit more swing into her step. And her flank.

A lot more swing to her flank, Eight Note mused.

“I always sleep well with you.” The mare responded with a wink.

Either Note laughed. “Jeez, who are you and what did you do with Silver Sway? I don’t remember her ever being this corny.”

The pegasus laughed. “Well, we did just get engaged. Can’t I feel a little sappy after a fabulous night with my gorgeous fiancee?”

Eighth Note chuckled. “I guess.”

Swinging both legs off the bed, Eighth Note made to get off the bed. A wave of nausea and a slight pain in her head caused her to pause. She placed a hoof to her temple and began to rub tentatively. Automatically, she pulled on a spell to help her cure the pain. Silver’s smile dropped into a concerned frown, all acts dropping in an instant.

“It hurts again doesn’t it?” Silver asked.

Eighth Note gave a hum of affirmation, too busy concentrating on the spell to verbalize anything.

“Note, I’m starting to get worried. Maybe we should see my brother."

The unicorn sighed, the spell having worked wonders, like usual. “Again? You know he’s just going to say the same thing he always does."

“'If the spell is working then there’s nothing to worry about.’” Silver quoted with a sigh.  “I understand that but the fact that it’s happening every morning makes it really hard not to worry."

Eighth shrugged. “It never lasts. That’s what the spell is for.” She stated pointedly. “Besides, who knows what I got into. We’re lucky that all I got was chronic migraines and not like…"

Silver Sway raised a brow. “Amnesia?”

Eighth smirked. “Chronic amnesia smart flank. I still remember everything that happened after and as far as I’m concerned that’s the only thing that matters.”

Silver Sway’s smile returned, if just a little, concern for Eighth Note still on the forefront of her mind but happy that Eighth considered their time together to be so important. The grey mare sighed. “I guess that’s true." She made a mental memo about talking to Cranium later anyway.

“Atta’ girl.” Eighth cheered as she finally got off the bed. With a few quick strides she was by Silver’s side, levitating a brush in her magic aura. “There’s a million and one better things we could talk about.” The unicorn checked herself to make sure that her mane had straightened into something more organized and professional before taking one of the sprays on the vanity. “I mean, we just got engaged. Don’t you wanna talk about wedding plans?"

Silver smiled. "I already have a list of priority ponies put together." She started happily." I even looked up some great places for a honeymoon in Vanhoover."

Eighth Note laughed. "Wow, you must have been thinking about this for a while. Maybe I should have just waited for you to propose." Eighth waggled her eyebrows and Silver just rolled her eyes. Eighth chuckled before dousing her hair in a nauseating mist of mane spray. "And why Vanhoover anyways. Seems kind of random."

Silver covered her nose, waiting a few moments after the stop of the spray before uncovering her eyes. "Well, I heard that Sweetie's sister has a villa there. She said that it was nice and she might ask…um…Rarity, I think was her name, to let us use it. We are doing her a favor with the little filly after all."

The spray can dropped down onto the vanity with a loud clang. Silver turned to face Eighth Note's wide eyes through the mirror. "Oh, crud!"

Silver Sway tilted her head questioningly.

Before she opened her mouth to ask, Eighth Note darted out of their bedroom, yelling, "I forgot to clean the guest bedroom!"

Silver just sighed before going back to preening her feathers.

Sweetie held on to the sleeping filly as she dozed soundly on her lap. The little grey earth pony really was an aesthetic marvel. Whoever this Octavia and this Vinyl Scratch were, they must have been very beautiful ponies indeed. It was a shame she never met them but she'd left for Manehattan with Applebloom and Scootaloo just a few days before they'd settled into Ponyville. They had only stayed a year before the…incident (as Rarity referred to it as on the rare occasions she needed to mention it) had occurred. If the living, sleeping proof of that particular family wasn't using her lap as a pillow right now, she would have been inclined to believed these mysterious ponies to never have existed.

Sweetie sighed as the rough winds tossed Quarter's dark mane against Sweetie's ivory white coat. Now, she couldn't stop thinking of the events that had happened so long ago. Hearing her sister's distraught rantings back then had been hard enough, but realizing Quarter Note must have only been about a month old brought a whole new level of tragedy to the story.

At least Quarter seemed like she was happy. There was that brief moment of serious anxiousness in her eyes as the carriage pulled away from Photo Finish's stoic form, but  she soon seemed to brush it off as the pegasi pulled up into the sky. With expected childlike enthusiasm, she'd excitedly commented on everything around her, pointing at funny looking landmarks and buildings. Sweetie had nervously clung to Quarter's hoof, just waiting for the moment she was going to lean out but to Sweetie's relief, Quarter kept her hooves and body parts safely inside the confines of the carriage.

Quarter also seemed to loose interest quickly, just staring back at the direction they came from for a while, still with that same nervous expression.

Sweetie had asked if Quarter was feeling homesick already and Quarter seemed to snap out of something. She had turned to face Sweetie with a questioning expression. There was no indication that the filly had ever been sad at all and the older mare had to wonder of she was just seeing things.

She'd changed the topic quickly and Quarter was all too eager to engage in a conversation with her idol. They talked about every sort of music under the sun, from country to polka to hiphop and jazz. Quarter seemed to have at least a brief history on how each genera came into being. Her favorites were predictably classical and dubstep. She loved mixing them together, along with various other genres, making something completely new, if her performance was any indication. It was very diverse, ranging from a classical one minute sonata played on a mini grand piano, a four person accapella, the other three parts pre-recorded, and a polka song played with a snare drum, a hi-hat symbol, an accordion and a harmonica, played at the same time, live. Needless to say, the performance got wilder as it progressed.

Sweetie enjoyed every moment of it. Even if some of the songs left quite a bit of room for improvement, the songs were very upbeat, energetic pieces and it was still a feat of skill one wouldn't expect from someone as young Quarter.

That was quite a few hours or so ago and there was still a few more miles between where they were, flying somewhere above Hollow Shades, and the giant buildings of metropolitan Manehattan.

Sweetie absently began to pat the sleeping filly's back and looked towards their destination. She really hoped that Quarter might finally have a chance to form a bond with her last living parent.