The Trouble with Trebles

Chapters

II. Notturno
III. Vivace con brio
Coda
I. Allegro sostenuto

II. Notturno

Octavia leaned forward in the passenger seat of Vinyl’s car, squinting to read the names on the passing street signs. “Alright, it’ll be the next left.”

With a nod, Vinyl turned the steering wheel.

The street in question looked much like any other suburban neighborhood at night, dark and quiet and unperturbed. The houses were decently sized but not extravagant, and old, wizened trees lined the street on either side. About a third of the way down, Octavia pointed at one of the houses and Vinyl slowed the car to a stop.

“That’s the place, huh?” Vinyl asked, looking at the two-story home over the top of her shades. “Not too shabby.”

“It’s home,” Octavia replied simply, gazing at the residence in question. She remained seated, staring into the darkened windows with a growing, gnawing feeling in her gut.

“You alright?”

Octavia glanced at the other girl, finding a concerned expression written across her face. “Oh, yes, I’m fine,” she lied.

She looked back at her house. After the day she’d had, the idea of going home and getting some rest had been very appealing to her back at Sugarcube Corner. But now that she was here, she found herself reluctant to go inside. The sheer emptiness of her home was practically tangible, like a gaping maw waiting to swallow her whole. The very idea was ludicrous to her. She’d been home alone before, so why should tonight be any different?

She knew the answer, of course. It was hard to imagine a more different night than this.

There was nothing for it. She had to be an adult, go into that house, and get some sleep. Alone.

Unless…

Before she could stop herself, she asked, “Would you like to come inside?”

Even in the corner of her eye, she could see Vinyl freeze in the driver’s seat. Slowly, the DJ’s head turned, regarding her through those inscrutable sunglasses of hers. A moment passed, teetering on the edge of awkwardness, and then: “Really? Your folks won’t mind?”

“They’re not home.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper. “It’s their anniversary. They’re spending the whole weekend up at our cabin.”

“Is that right?” The corners of Vinyl’s mouth slowly tugged upward into a smile. “Well, then I’d love to.”

Octavia returned the smile, though hers was far less confident. “Thank you. It’s silly, but after everything that’s happened tonight, I just… I’d really appreciate the company.”

With a smile, Vinyl reached over and gave Octavia’s hand a squeeze. The touch was electrifying to the cellist, and she tried to ignore the warmth spreading through her cheeks.

Releasing her hand, Vinyl moved to pull into Octavia’s driveway.

“Wait!” Octavia said suddenly, peering at some of the other houses.

Vinyl stomped on the brake, giving both of them an unpleasant lurch.

“What is it?” Vinyl asked, alarmed. She looked at Octavia—saw the expression on her face—and her shoulders slumped a little. “You having second thoughts?”

“Hmm? Oh, no! Just… Would you mind parking down the street a little ways?”

Vinyl raised an eyebrow. “Any particular reason?”

“The neighbors,” Octavia whispered ominously, as if invoking the name of some fell beast. “They know my parents are away for the weekend. If they see a strange car parked in front of my house, there’ll be gossip, and if it gets back to my parents…”

Vinyl waited for her to finish that sentence, then said, “And… what? You afraid your parents will think you brought a guy over to screw or something?” As soon as the words left her mouth, Vinyl’s eyes widened. For an awkward moment, the two girls looked at each other, both blushing. Finally, Vinyl looked away, fidgeting in her seat. “Or—y’know—something along those lines.”

Toying with the hem of her skirt, Octavia said, “Please, just humor me.”

With a nod, Vinyl stepped on the gas.

The two girls made their way to Octavia’s front door under the cover of night. A few seconds spent fumbling with her keys in the dark, and Octavia managed to open the door, allowing the two of them to slip inside unnoticed.

As Vinyl waited, Octavia moved through the living room, turning the lights on one by one, gradually revealing the room to her guest.

It was only a living room, but it was beautiful; not exceptionally large or fancy, but tastefully decorated. This was a home—warm and heavy with memories. There wasn’t a TV in sight, all the seating places facing inward for long conversations. Shelves lined most of the available wall space, loaded with books and knick-knacks and family photos, and in front of a large stone fireplace on the far wall stood an old and clearly loved piano.

Vinyl gave an impressed whistle, lifting her shades to get an unimpeded view of the room. “Pretty sweet, Tavi. Very you.”

Octavia’s eyebrows furrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing bad!” she replied, raising her hands in a placating gesture. “Relax, girl. I’m saying I dig it. It’s got a cozy, Old World sort of vibe to it.”

“Oh.” She gave a sheepish smile. “Sorry.” Removing her black shoes and setting them nearly to the side, she padded across the living room on her socked feet and sat in a large, leather chair.

“So, what do your folks do for a living?” Vinyl asked, making her way to a bookshelf and perusing its contents.

Octavia watched her as she walked, trying to keep her eyes fixed on the other girl’s face. “They’re teachers.”

“No way! At our school?”

“No, at the University. My father teaches history, and my mother teaches music.”

“Makes sense,” Vinyl said with a nod, casting her eyes between the piano and a large, antique globe in one corner. She continued along the wall, stopping occasionally to look at a book.

“And what about you?” Octavia said after a brief silence.

“Hmm?”

“What about your parents?”

“Ah.” Vinyl shrugged. “My folks split up years ago.”

Octavia grimaced. “Oh, I’m so sorry!”

“Don’t sweat it,” Vinyl said with a casual wave of her hand. “My mom got custody, but she’s pretty busy with her work, so I spend most of my time with Long Play’s place.” At Octavia’s questioning glance, she added, “My brother.”

“I see. Is he a musician, too?”

“Only in his free time. He’s a mechanic, actually. Mostly restores classic cars and does custom jobs—stuff like that.”

Remembering his work on Vinyl’s car, Octavia couldn’t help but be impressed.

“Oh. My. Gawd!” Vinyl cried suddenly.

Octavia jolted, her body leaving the chair for a split second. “What?! What is it?!”

“Check this out!” She grabbed a framed photo off the shelf and presented it to her. It bore the image of a tiny Octavia, dressed up in a frilly, poofy pink dress, standing between her parents with a violin in her little hand.

“Oh,” Octavia said, blushing. “That was taken after my first violin recital. I didn’t switch over to cello until middle school.”

“You were so cute!” Vinyl squealed.

Octavia’s blush deepened.

Returning the photo to its place, Vinyl looked across the room as if for the first time. “I can just see you waddling around here when you were little.” She walked over to the piano and gently pressed the middle C. “And lemme guess. This is where you got your first music lessons, right?”

“Yes,” Octavia said, crossing her legs as she smiled fondly at the old instrument. “My mother had me playing almost as soon as I could walk. I eventually strayed into the string instruments, of course, but the piano always brings back good memories for me.”

Vinyl smiled at her, and Octavia smiled back.

And then they smiled some more. The only sound was the ticking of a clock on the wall.

“Well!” Octavia said suddenly, getting to her feet. “Would you like something to drink?”

“Uh, sure! Water’s fine.”

“Coming right up!” Octavia replied with exaggerated cheer before moving across the room and ducking into the kitchen

Once out of Vinyl’s sight, Octavia leaned against the kitchen table and took a deep breath, her mind frantically replaying the past few minutes and searching for some explanation for her behavior. Except, it wasn’t just the past few minutes, if she was being honest. Moments like that had been happening all night, ever since she met the Vinyl at the amphitheater. Even now, just thinking about her, Octavia felt a familiar fluttery sensation in her stomach.

What is it about her, Octavia thought, massaging her temple. Why does she make me feel this way? For that matter, what even is this feeling?

Her mind supplied a few options:

Attraction?

Love?

“N-no! No, that’s… that’s silly,” she whispered to herself. “I just met her! How much do I even know about her! Besides… I’m not interested in girls that way.”

…Am I?

She began pacing, struggling to sort through her thoughts.

No matter what she did, she couldn’t avoid the conclusion that there was some connection between the two of them, one that seemed more than merely platonic. Like… chemistry. But could she even imagine feeling that way for another girl? Did she feel that way for Vinyl? And did Vinyl feel the same way?

Well, she agreed to come inside, didn’t she?

Octavia stopped pacing suddenly, her eyes wide and unblinking.

She’d invited Vinyl into her home.

Why? What had she expected to happen? What did she hope would happen? She’d said she didn’t want to be alone, and that partially true, but she knew there was more to it than that.

Vinyl’s off-hand remark back in the car sprang into Octavia’s mind:

“And… what? You afraid your parents will think you brought a guy over to screw or something?”

And the way Vinyl reacted afterward. The awkward moment they’d shared, blushes on their faces.

Unsolicited mental images began bombarding Octavia—lips brushing together, hands passing over skin, naked bodies tangled together; sweat and moans and cries of pleasure.

Octavia stomped her foot. “No!” she hissed to the empty room, face flushed and heart racing. Ignoring the sudden heat in her lower abdomen, she grabbed a glass out of the cupboard and began filling it with water. “I don’t know what Vinyl expected to happen. I don’t know what I expected to happen. But it won’t be that. I’m just going to bring Vinyl her water, make some polite conversation, and bid her goodnight.”

With a nod, to herself she shut off the tap… and then froze.

A sound could be heard drifting in through the door to the living room. Music. The piano.

As if in a trance, Octavia snuck her way across the kitchen and peeked into the living room. She nearly dropped the glass of water at the sight of Vinyl Scratch sitting at the piano, playing. The image alone was shocking: A rowdy, neon-haired DJ sitting at the piano with perfect posture, her hands dancing gracefully across the keys. And the music itself?

Extraordinary.

Octavia didn’t even realize she was walking. One second she was watching from the kitchen door, and then next she was right behind Vinyl, looking over her shoulder as the girl played from memory. Her technique, her feel for the music, the flow of her phrasing, her ear for color—Octavia was mesmerized by the display.

She must have moved close enough to be visible in the corner of Vinyl’s eye, because she jumped suddenly, turning to face Octavia as the tones of the piano faded slowly into silence.

“Jeez, Tavi! Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

Octavia simply stared at her.

“Uh… You okay?” she asked.

Octavia breathed, “Was that Chopin?”

“Oh, yeah. One of his nocturnes, I think. I don’t remember for sure. I learned it years ago, and it’s always kinda stuck with me, y’know?”

“I had no idea you could play like that,” Octavia said, finally handing Vinyl her water.

“But…” She took a swig and swallowed, “I told you earlier tonight that I took lessons when I was younger.”

“Well, yes, but…” She pointed at the piano. “That was incredible! Why, with a bit of polish, you’d have the makings of a concert pianist!”

Vinyl shrugged. “Meh.”

“’Meh’?” Octavia felt her eye twitch. “’Meh’?!”

“Well… yeah! Look, the piano’s cool, and I can dig classical music, but that’s not really my scene.” She handed the half-drained glass back to Octavia and turned back to the keyboard, idly running through some rapid arpeggios. “I’d rather play own music. And if I’m gonna be doing that, I’d like to do something new. Something that’s never been seen before. It’s hard to compose classical music without stepping on some dead guy’s feet. You feel me?”

Octavia glared at her, then released her frustration in a sigh. “No, I can’t say I do, but… it’s your choice, I suppose. Even if it does seem like a waste.”

“’Waste’ nothing!” Vinyl scoffed. “I put everything I have into my music. Sure, it might not be classical, but I’m damn proud of it.” She gave Octavia a wink. “I’ll bring my laptop to school next week and you can take a listen. It might just surprise you.”

“Maybe you’re right. I didn’t mean to jump to conclusions.”

“Don’t sweat it.”

After only a moment of hesitation, Octavia set the glass on a nearby end table and took a seat next to Vinyl at the piano. “Can you play something else for me?”

“Oh, I dunno…” Vinyl said, coyly tapping her chin with a finger.

“Please! You’re so good!”

Vinyl didn’t answer at first, but then she cut her eye’s in Octavia’s direction. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll play something, but only if you play with me.”

Octavia’s breath caught in her throat. “You mean… like, together?”

“Yeah! Go grab your cello and we’ll jam.”

Octavia looked at Vinyl, then down at the piano, the wheels in her head turning. The idea of playing with Vinyl—of making music together—made her heart thunder in her chest.

“I have a better idea,” she said with a smile.

Before Vinyl could say anything, Octavia got up and darted out of the room. Still smiling, she jogged down the staircase leading to her basement and began rummaging through some boxes stacked in the corner. Inside were dozens—hundreds—of musical scores. She rifled through all the manuscripts in one box, then moved to the next. Soon enough she found what she was looking for and ran back upstairs, hugging a booklet to her chest.

Vinyl watched her as she ran back into the room and deposited the score on the piano’s music stand, reading the title on the front cover.

“Fantasia in F Minor for four hands, by Franz Schubert,” she read. “Hey, I’ve played some of his stuff before!”

Octavia sat back down on the bench and nervously adjusted her skirt. “It’s a bit advanced, but it’s my favorite piano duet piece, and it’s something we can play together.” She opened the score and flipped to the first page. “Now, I must warn you: I’m a little rusty on the piano, and you are, to my chagrin, clearly the better player. But I’m willing to give it a shot if you are.”

“I’m game!” Vinyl said with a grin.

As one, they turned to the manuscript and took a moment to study it. Then, with nods and tentative smiles, they raised their hands into position.

And they played.

Vinyl, seated to the left, started first, setting a steady rhythm in the lower register, over which Octavia laid the central melody into the start of the third measure. It was awkward going at first, Octavia struggling to keep up with Vinyl’s greater virtuosity. It was frustrating, to say the least. Octavia adored classical music, and yet she was being out-played by a DJ—and a DJ that was sight-reading, at that.

It didn’t help that Vinyl’s playing featured various subtle idiosyncrasies, which Octavia first believed to be minor mistakes, but slowly came to realize were deliberate. Even playing the piece for the first time, Vinyl was managing to weave expressive flourishes into the music, lending her own personal touch to the music and thoroughly tripping up Octavia’s more mechanical interpretation of the score.

She glanced at Vinyl out of the corner of her eye, watching as the girl swayed back and forth in her seat, lost in the music. Octavia faced the piano again, her heart beating a little faster, at once envious and enamored of the girl beside her.

In time, she got a feel for Vinyl’s style and adjusted her playing accordingly, and, as the piece went on, they fell more and more in sync. Soon enough, Octavia barely had to think about it, the music flowing out of her and mingling with Vinyl’s into a harmonious flow of emotion, the piano positively singing into the otherwise empty house.

As they began the Scherzo, Octavia felt like electricity was coursing through her veins. She would cast glances in Vinyl’s direction—looking at her face, at the smile upon it, at the way her body moved. And, from time to time, she could swear she felt Vinyl’s eyes on her as well. She could feel the warmth of the other girl’s body sitting next to her, and the way their hands and arms brushed together every now and then sent happy shivers up and down her spine.

As they moved into the final movement, Octavia realized they were leaning against each other. It was as though they were a single, four-armed being—some kind of eastern deity smiling in enlightened bliss. They were making more than music now. She could feel it in the air, like the magic she’d felt at the amphitheater. Only now, it wasn’t so unsettling. It was exciting.

The music built and built, fugal strains rising and tumbling over each other in euphoric cascades of sound… until it stopped.

A hovering, blank measure. The house utterly silent.

Then, the opening melody of the piece made a haunting reprieve. As they played through the concluding chords of the piece, Octavia chanced another look in Vinyl’s direction, catching something in her periphery.

There, atop Vinyl’s head, was a set of small, pony-like ears.

By the way Vinyl was looking at her, the affliction was mutual.

They played the final notes, and, as the music fell silent, the ears vanished in an ethereal flash of white light.

The two girls sat at the piano in silence for a moment, slowly facing each other, eyes locked as if trying to communicate the thrill and utter strangeness of the past twenty minutes. Octavia tried looking into the other girl’s eyes, but they were hidden behind those infernal shades. Reaching out, she removed the sunglasses and set them on the piano, revealing Vinyl’s magenta orbs.

What happened next was something of a blur to Octavia. All of a sudden, her lips were pressed against Vinyl’s. That was surprising enough, but nowhere near as surprising as the realization that it had been her, and not Vinyl, that initiated the kiss.

Octavia pulled away with a gasp, her face practically glowing red.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” she said, moving to stand up. “I-I don’t know what came over, I just…”

She was stopped suddenly by a hand grabbing her arm, which promptly pulled her back onto the bench.

“Tavi,” Vinyl said, heat pouring from her gaze. “Just shut up.”

And with that, Vinyl pulled her into another kiss.

Octavia’s eyes widened, every muscle in her body locking in preparation for flight. Except… it was actually rather nice. The softness of Vinyl’s lips. The touch of Vinyl’s hand on her arm. The way their legs pressed together under the keyboard.

Slowly—tentatively—Octavia kissed back, her eyes closing as she melted into the kiss.

She nearly balked when Vinyl’s lips parted and she felt a tongue brush against her lips. She gasped, which was all the wet muscle needed to slip into her mouth. As the other girl’s tongue met her own, a moan emerged from Octavia’s throat unbidden. She might’ve been embarrassed by the sound, except she found it hard to care.

Octavia lost all sense of time. The waltz of their tongues and the contact of their bodies—those were the measure of her existence. Nothing seemed to matter except the girl beside her, and the desire Octavia had for her.

Desire.

That was the feeling that had been haunting her all night. In hindsight, it was so obvious it nearly hurt. And now, that desire was ready to be sated.

As one, they broke the kiss, breathing heavily as they looked into each other’s eyes. In that moment, both of them knew what was about to happen, and both of them were more than okay with it. The only issue yet to be resolved was purely logistical.

“Would you like to see my bedroom?” Octavia asked.

“Does a bear crap in the woods?” Vinyl replied.

Biting her lip and feeling suddenly like she was riding up the first ramp of a roller coaster, Octavia grabbed Vinyl’s hand. Together they got to their feet, and Octavia led them out of the room.

The sound of their footsteps ascending the stairs, and then the living room fell silent.

Author's Note

The pieces played in this chapter:

III. Vivace con brio

Octavia’s bedroom wasn’t all that dissimilar to that of most teenage girls. It might’ve been a little tidier, and the overall color palette tended toward the darker end of the spectrum, but no one who knew Octavia well would find that surprising. A shelf on one wall was packed to the brim with books, and a cello stood in its stand by the window. It was a place of rest, of study, of artistic pursuits—an oasis for a young, budding musician.

Of course, the two girls barely noticed any of that as they stumbled inside, bodies in nearly constant contact, and whatever peace the room usually provided was effectively destroyed by the sound of giggles and gasps and panting breaths as they made their way to the bed.

Octavia took a seat on her mattress, and then promptly rolled onto her back as Vinyl kicked off her sneakers and crawled on top of her, straddling her hips. With an almost predatory grin, Vinyl leaned down and kissed her, and Octavia returned it with gusto, wrapping her arms around Vinyl’s neck. Vinyl placed her right hand against Octavia’s cheek, and held it there for a moment before moving it up and running her fingers through the cellist’s dark, silky hair, down and down until it found her shoulder.

When the hand continued its journey south and brushed against her breast, Octavia gave a start, prompting Vinyl to break their kiss.

“You okay?” she asked, removing her hand from Octavia’s chest.

Octavia looked down at the hand, surprised to find herself missing its touch. “Y-yes,” she said, moving her eyes up to Vinyl’s own. “You just surprised me.”

“We’re not going too fast for you, are we?”

“I… I don’t know,” Octavia said, searching her feelings.

“Do you… want to stop?” Vinyl asked, disappointment evident in her tone.

Octavia met her eyes. “Not especially, no.”

With a gentle smile, Vinyl returned her hand to Octavia’s breast, more gently now, slowly rubbing it and squeezing it through the fabric of her clothing. Octavia hummed in approval, running her hands up and down Vinyl’s back, and the hums turned into moans when Vinyl leaned down and began kissing and nibbling on her neck. She placed a hand on the back of Vinyl’s head, holding it in place and relishing the feel of the other girl’s lips and tongue against her skin.

Meanwhile, Vinyl’s right hand bade a fond farewell to Octavia’s boob and resumed its southward journey, moving down the other girl’s belly and arriving at her skirt. As her fingertips made contact with Octavia’s leg, she slipped her hand underneath the skirt and trailed her palm up the cellist’s smooth thigh.

“Vinyl, wait,” Octavia said, squirming.

The DJ did as she was told, removing her lips from Octavia’s neck and giving her a questioning look. “Is everything alright?” she asked.

“Yes, I… I just have a confession to make.” She blushed, averting her eyes.

“Yeah?”

Octavia nodded, hesitated, and said, “I’ve never done this before.”

Vinyl blinked. “With a girl?”

“With anyone,” she whispered.

“Oh.” Vinyl swallowed. “Oh…”

Octavia nodded. “Though, to be honest, the fact you’re a girl does complicates things a little. You see, I’ve… never felt this way about a girl before.” She snorted. “Admittedly, I’ve never felt this way for a boy, either. I always thought I was too focused on my music or my studies to care much about romance. But… I suppose I always just assumed I was straight.”

“But you do feel ‘this way’ about me, huh?” Vinyl asked with a tiny smile.

Octavia bit her lip, and nodded.

Like a leaf falling from a tree, Vinyl leaned down and planted a kiss on Octavia’s lips.

Octavia hummed in approval of the tender kiss, but as it ended, her nervousness returned. “But… I don’t know how this is supposed to go,” she continued. “I only have a vague idea of what two girls even do together. I suppose I… I’m just afraid I won’t be very good.” She met Vinyl’s eyes. “I assume you have been with a girl before?”

Vinyl nodded. “A couple of times.” She opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again to speak: “Do you really want to keep going? Just say the word and we can stop.”

For all Octavia’s confusion and nervousness, and in spite of how alien it all felt, the idea of stopping was nearly painful to her. She couldn’t deny it if she wanted to. She wanted it. She wanted Vinyl. It frightened her how much she wanted her.

“No, I want to keep going,” she said with absolute confidence.

Vinyl grinned. “Well, okay then. Just sit back and relax, Tavi. You’re in good hands. Very…” Her hand once again began moving up Octavia’s thigh. “Very…” It arrived at her hip, coming in contact with Octavia’s panties. “…Good hands.”

And with that, her hand slipped between Octavia’s thighs and cupped her mound outside of her panties. Octavia gasped, and then moaned as Vinyl began stroking her through the rapidly dampening fabric, her eyes drifting closed as pleasure, delivered for the first time by another human being, bombarded her brain.

Vinyl watched Octavia’s face for a moment, basking in the euphoria she was giving the girl, and then ducked her head down, biting onto Octavia’s bow tie and pulling it undone with her teeth. She then used her free hand to unbutton Octavia’s vest and the white shirt beneath it, pulling both of them open and exposing Octavia’s belly and bra-covered chest.

With an expert flick of her thumb, Vinyl brushed Octavia’s clit, causing her back to arch. As if she had planned it, Vinyl reached into the space under Octavia’s raised back and unhooked her bra. This allowed her to lift the article away and reveal the cellist’s breasts for the first time.

Locking eyes with Octavia, Vinyl leaned down and flicked her tongue against her right nipple, then closed her mouth over it and gave it a gentle suck.

“Oh god…” Octavia moaned, grabbing a handful of Vinyl’s blue hair as she whimpered.

“You think that’s good?” Vinyl said with a smug grin. “Check this out.”

With no further ado, she slid her hand inside Octavia’s panties and pushed her middle finger into Octavia’s moist depths. The cellist’s body jolted with pleasure, her insides clenching around the intruding digit. Octavia began to let out great, vocalized gasps as Vinyl began thrusting her finger in and out of her. Those gasps became more like cries as Vinyl added a second finger, then brushed her thumb against Octavia’s clit with each thrust.

It was unlike anything Octavia had ever felt before. She’d touched herself, of course, but it had never been like this. Her eyes drifted closed as pleasure swept through her system like fire. Her feet, hanging off the edge of her mattress, lifted and twitched, her toes curling inside of her socks.

As she fingered her, Vinyl leaned down and continued to suckle at Octavia’s tits, moving from one to the next, leaving saliva glistening on the sensitive nipples. With one hand still clutching at Vinyl’s hair, Octavia’s other hand grabbed and clawed at her sheets, then moved to cover her mouth as she all but sang her pleasure into her darkened bedroom.

Vinyl began thrusting her fingers deeper, faster, more forcefully. Even through the fog in her brain, Octavia would hear the sound of it—a rhythmic wet squelch as the other girl’s fingers parted her folds and withdrew.

Octavia felt a familiar itch deep within her core, and knew that she was already getting close. As if she could sense it as well, Vinyl pulled away from the cellist’s nipple and watched her face as she continued to finger her, smiling. Octavia met her gaze, and they simply stared at each other as one gave pleasure and the other received. Looking into Vinyl’s magenta eyes, Octavia felt the warm tension within her growing even stronger, until it felt as though she might burst.

That’s when Vinyl thrust her fingers deep, holding them there, and curled them upward toward Octavia’s abdomen, finding and triggering a rough patch against Octavia’s inner walls.

With a squeal, Octavia came like a freight train, the tension within her melting and flooding to the ends of her extremities. Clenching her eyes closed, she threw her arms around Vinyl’s neck and pulled their bodies together, holding onto the other girl for dear life as her body spasmed. Her thoughts were wiped clean, until only one thing remained: Bliss.

After what felt like minutes—though she didn’t trust herself to gauge accurately—Octavia’s body went slack, and she covered her face with one hand as she panted and moaned in her afterglow.

“Looks like you enjoyed yourself,” Vinyl said, a faint smugness in her tone.

“That… was unbelievable…” Octavia said, still trying to catch her breath, then flinched as Vinyl finally withdrew her fingers from her pussy and out of her panties altogether.

She watched as Vinyl raised her hand, almost embarrassed to find that it was coated in her juices.

“Holy cow, Tavi,” Vinyl said, looking at her hand in awe. “You soaked me.”

“Sorry…” she said, blushing.

“Sorry? You crazy? This means I done good.”

With no further ado, Vinyl stuck both fingers into her mouth. As Octavia watched, captivated, Vinyl slowly pulled the fingers out of her mouth, sucking them clean, until Octavia’s essence had been replaced by her own saliva. To finish the impromptu cleaning, Vinyl used her tongue to lap up what remained of the pussy juice.

“Mmm!” Vinyl said, licking her lips. “Tasty.”

Octavia wasn’t sure whether she was disgusted or aroused by the display. “I am?”

“Here, I’ll show you.” And with that, Vinyl kissed her.

Octavia’s eyes widened as the DJ’s tongue delivered her a sample of her own juices.

She squirmed in protest, gently pushing Vinyl away to break the kiss. “Vinyl! For the love of all that is good and…” She trailed off, smacking her lips. “Actually, that’s not as bad as I expected.”

“Right?” Vinyl said with a smirk, rolling onto the bed by Octavia’s side.

Octavia smiled at her, raising her hand to touch the other girl’s cheek. “Thank you, Vinyl. I mean, not for feeding me my… you know. But for before. It was better than I ever imagined it would be. I… I’m glad that you’re my first.”

Vinyl leaned her cheek into Octavia’s hand. “I’m glad, too. And you haven’t seen anything yet, Tavi. Fingering’s nice and all, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg.”

“I can’t wait,” Octavia said with a contented sigh. “But, actually… I was wondering if I might have a turn.”

Vinyl tilted her head like a confused puppy.

“Or give you a turn, I should say,” Octavia clarified. “To return the favor?”

Vinyl’s eyes widened. “A-are you sure? I mean, I know you’re still new to this whole lesbian thing, and I want you to move at a pace you’re comfortable with. You don’t have to feel obligated, ‘kay?”

“Oh, I know. But… I want to. I want to make you feel as good as you made me feel, if I can. Besides, I’m still getting used to the idea of being with a girl… sexually speaking. Lying there and letting you do things to me is one thing, but actually doing things to a girl, and looking at a girl as the object of my desire, is still a new sensation to me. Why tip-toe around it when I can jump right in and embrace it?”

“Tavi?” Vinyl grinned. “You had me at ‘I want to’.”

They smiled, and then leaned in for another kiss.

Pulling away from the girl’s lips, Octavia got off the bed and onto her feet, and began to undress. As soon as she caught Vinyl watching her, propped up on her elbows on the mattress, Octavia decided to make a show of it, removing her clothing as sensually and seductively as she could. She felt rather silly doing it, but she seemed to have Vinyl’s undivided attention.

She began by removing her shirt and vest, which was already unbuttoned, tossing them with uncharacteristic sloppiness to the side of the room. She then hooked her thumbs under the waistband of her skirt and panties, turned away from Vinyl, bent over, and slid them slowly down to the floor together, stepping out of them and likewise tossing them aside. Last to go were her knee-length socks, sliding them slowly down her legs to Vinyl’s obvious approval.

At last, she stood in all her naked glory in front of the other girl. Now that her little show was over, she fidgeted nervously as she waited for some kind of reaction from Vinyl, like a competitor awaiting the judges’ scores.

“God, you’re so hot.”

Whatever Octavia had been expecting her to say, it wasn’t that. “Are you serious?”

“Uh… yeah?” She ran her eyes up and down the cellist’s form, illuminated by the moonlight. “You have a killer bod, girl. And you’re sexy as hell, too.”

Octavia looked down at herself, as if trying to see what Vinyl saw in her. “I admit, I’ve never thought of myself as sexy before.”

“And that’s part of your sexiness,” Vinyl said with a wink. She looked down at her own clothing and reached for the zipper on her shirt. “Well, let it never be said I let a chick be naked alone.”

“No, wait.”

Vinyl stopped, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Can…” Octavia swallowed. “Can I undress you?”

Vinyl stared at her, and then she smiled. “Be my guest.” She lay back on the bed, her body going slack, waiting for Octavia to do as she pleased.

With a nervous smile, Octavia climbed back onto the bed. She straddled the still-clothed DJ, her naked thighs settling against her hips. She looked down at the concealed body below her, feeling like predator and prey all at once.

She decided to start with the basics. She grabbed Vinyl’s right hand and lifted it to her, kissing her palm and fingers before gently sliding the arm warmer off of her, then kissing up her wrist and forearm. She repeated the process with Vinyl’s left hand, adding little licks to the mix this time.

That done, she placed her hands on Vinyl’s stomach, caressing up and down the flat surface and feeling the shifting of cloth over the girl’s skin. She moved her hands to either side of Vinyl’s slender waist, then rubbed them up her sides, and—slowly, tentatively—passed her hands over the mounds on Vinyl’s chest.

She arrived at the collar of Vinyl’s shirt, grabbed the zipper, and slowly began to pull it down—down her chest, down her stomach, and finally opening the shirt altogether. She felt like a kid unwrapping a birthday present as she pulled the shirt open, revealing… another shirt. Granted, it was just a plain white undershirt, but still, it was anti-climactic. With a huff, she had Vinyl sit upright and raise her arms, and proceeded to remove the DJ’s shirts, until only the bra remained.

She hugged Vinyl, reaching both hands around her back to unhook her bra, watching what she was doing over the girl’s shoulder. As she lifted the bra away, she got her first look at Vinyl’s boobs.

She wasn’t quite as well-endowed as Octavia herself, but her breasts were perky and alluring, and Octavia found her mouth watering at the sight. She reached a hand to touch one of them, but stopped short. She cast a quick glance up at Vinyl’s amused eyes, bit her lip, and made contact. Vinyl hummed in approval as Octavia kneaded her right boob, then tweaked her nipple between her fingers. Sitting back on her haunches, Octavia brought her other hand into play, rubbing both of her breasts at once, her hands occasionally straying into caresses across her stomach and around to her back.

“Ohhhh yeah,” Vinyl moaned, reaching up to run her fingers through Octavia’s hair. “That’s nice.”

But Octavia was hardly listening. She moved her hands to either side of Vinyl’s ribcage and held her there. She could feel Vinyl’s heart beating in her chest and, with a lick of her lips, she darted forward, taking one of Vinyl’s nipples in her mouth.

Even in her upright position, Vinyl’s back arched, moving her hand to the back of Octavia’s head.

“Oh shit!” she gasped. “Yeah, that’s it. You’re doing great, Tavi.”

Without removing her mouth from Vinyl’s nipple, Octavia lowered her onto her back, and then finally released her nipple with a wet pop. Meeting Vinyl’s eyes, Octavia began to kiss and lick her way down Vinyl’s belly until she arrived at her lower body.

In spite of everything that they had done together, Octavia felt a renewed sense of nervousness, knowing that the final threshold was about to be crossed. Steeling her resolve, she grabbed onto Vinyl’s skirt and, patting the DJ’s hip, said, “Raise up, please.”

Vinyl did as instructed, and Octavia pulled her skirt down her legs, dropping the article onto the floor. All that remained were her tight-fitting leggings. Assuming that Vinyl was wearing panties underneath them, Octavia wasted little time in grabbing the leggings by their waste band and pulling them down… only to freeze mid-thigh with a sudden realization:

Vinyl wasn’t wearing panties.

Octavia looked between Vinyl’s legs, and Vinyl’s naughty bits looked right back at her. Octavia didn’t know what to do. There were supposed to have been panties! She was supposed to have had more time to prepare herself!

“Uh, Earth to Tavi.”

Octavia blinked, looking up at Vinyl, then back down at… Vinyl .

“Sorry,” she said. “I just wasn’t expecting…”

“Me to be going commando?” Vinyl offered with a waggle of her eyebrows.

Octavia merely nodded. Swallowing her uncertainty down, she finished removing Vinyl’s leggings, leaving the other girl entirely nude. And on her bed. Octavia might have been thrown for a loop by that realization, but she was too transfixed by the DJ’s genitals to care.

Like a moth to a flame, Octavia got down on her knees, grabbed Vinyl’s legs, and pulled the DJ closer so that her legs hung off the edge of the bed. Placing her hands on the soft insides of Vinyl’s thighs and gently pushing them apart, Octavia leaned forward and got a closer look at the vagina in front of her. From her new vantage point, she could see that it was moist, and a musky, primal smell assaulted her brain. Sliding her hand up Vinyl’s thigh, she cautiously touched the palm of her hand against Vinyl’s mound, nearly gasping at how warm it felt.

Using her thumbs, she spread Vinyl’s lips open, staring into her pink, dripping insides. Looking back to Vinyl’s face and seeing the expectant look upon it, Octavia took her right index finger and, after a brief moment of hesitation, slid it into Vinyl’s body. She could feel the DJ’s pussy enveloping her finger, could feel her insides squeezing around it, as if trying to pull it deeper.

Ever so slowly, she pulled the finger back out, finding it glistening with Vinyl’s nectar.

There was no denying it anymore. Octavia was more aroused than she’d ever been before. The trickle of her own juices down her leg only confirmed it. Remembering Vinyl’s earlier actions, she closed her eyes and stuck the finger into her mouth.

Then, her eyes flew open again.

She’d gotten a small taste of herself earlier, and hadn’t been… well, pleasantly surprised, perhaps, but not overly impressed. But Vinyl…?

Wrapping her arms around Vinyl’s thighs, Octavia dove in, dragging her tongue up the entire length of Vinyl’s slit.

“Oh, f-fuck!” Vinyl swore with a gasp.

Octavia pulled her tongue back into her mouth, swishing the gathered liquid around on her taste buds. There was no mistaking it. Vinyl was delicious.

More sure than ever, Octavia moved in and began lapping at Vinyl’s pussy, finding a steady rhythm as she slid her tongue across the other girl’s lower lips. She looked up, along Vinyl’s torso. Vinyl lay there with her arm draped over her eyes, mouth open in an expression of bliss. Growing ever more confident, she placed her entire mouth over Vinyl’s entrance and buried her tongue inside the girl, thrashing the wet muscle around inside her.

Vinyl cried out now, reaching down to place her hands on Octavia’s head. The cellist smiled as she felt Vinyl’s thighs trembling to either side of her head. The fact that she was eating a girl out was mind-boggling enough, but to know that she was giving said girl so much pleasure was, frankly, one of the most satisfying things she had ever experienced.

Hoping to draw things out a bit, Octavia unsheathed her tongue from Vinyl’s quivering depths and set about teasing her. She nibbled ever so gently on her labia, peppered soft kissing along her inner thighs, and ran her hands in feathery caresses up her stomach to once again massage the girl’s breasts, only occasionally returning to dig her tongue against Vinyl’s pussy before withdrawing again. The teasing was having its desired effect: Vinyl’s moans took on a plaintive quality, and her body twitched and shook as it received its rations of pleasure.

Vinyl was a good sport, but everyone has a limit. “Tavi,” she said eventually. “You… you’re k-killing me here.”

Octavia pulled away from her crotch. “What do you want me to do about it?” she asked innocently, feeling suddenly cheeky.

“You know what.”

She smiled, Vinyl’s juices dripping from her chin. “I’d like to hear you say it.”

“Oh, for the love of— I’ve created a monster. Alright, Tavi: Could you just finish me off already? Please?! If I don’t cum in the next ten seconds, my head’s gonna pop.”

Octavia acted as though she was thinking it over. Then, “Well, alright. You talked me into it.”

Using her thumbs to spread Vinyl open, Octavia lunged forward and wrapped her lips around Vinyl’s clit.

The DJ’s body jolted, her back arching off the bed and her hands clutching desperately at the sheets. “Yes! There! D-don’t stop!”

Octavia gave the button a suck and grazed her tongue across its tip.

With a shriek, Vinyl finally got her climax. Her smooth thighs clamped tight around Octavia’s head, holding it in place as her pussy sprayed in the cellist’s face at point-blank range. Vinyl’s body spasmed as the orgasm ripped through her.

Finally, the cloud of pleasure began to fade, and Octavia, freed from the grip of Vinyl’s legs, released the other girl’s clit.

“Oh my god…” Vinyl moaned. “That was unr—”

With a smirk, Octavia leaned back in and took the clit into her mouth again, this time ever-so-gently raking her teeth across it.

“—re-AAAAAUGGGH FUCK!” Vinyl’s entire body seemed to leave the bed as another orgasm burst through her nervous system. Octavia received a second, albeit smaller, squirt of the girl’s nectar, this time catching it in her mouth.

As her second orgasm passed, Vinyl’s body went limp as a noodle, random muscles across her body twitching occasionally. As she lay there, panting and dazed and trying to make her way back down to the Earth, Octavia crawled up her body and kissed her, releasing the mouthful of Vinyl’s cum past the spent girl’s lips.

As Vinyl idly swallowed it down, Octavia smirked at her and said, “Now we’re even.” And with that, she lay by Vinyl’s side, cuddling up against her.

“H-holy shit, girl,” Vinyl breathed, finally coming to her senses. “Are you sure you’ve never gone down on a girl before? Because if not, you’re a fucking prodigy.”

“I’ve always been a prodigy,” Octavia said, pecking Vinyl’s neck and tracing her hand down Vinyl’s belly. “But now I have a new instrument.”

“Okay, that was pretty corny, but I forgive you.”

They lay there for a moment, one more patiently than the other. Octavia couldn’t help but grind her thighs together.

“So…” she said. “You ready to go again?”

Vinyl looked at her, her eyes wide. “For serious?”

Octavia nodded, biting her lip.

“Dayum, girl! You’re gonna wear me out at this rate.”

“So, is that a yes?”

Vinyl chuckled. “Yeah, just… let me pull myself together. Rehydrate, for one thing.”

Octavia smiled, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek. “Sounds good to me.”

Coda

Octavia slowly opened her eyes, and right away she knew something was different. She silently took stock of her situation, and a few facts presented themselves to her.

First, she was in her bedroom. Simple enough, and altogether expected.

Second, it was early still, judging by the angle of the sunlight pouring in through her window. That was a relief. She hated oversleeping.

Third—and this is where things started to get a little more unusual—she was absolutely exhausted. She felt as though she had run a marathon. And yet, it must’ve been an incredibly good marathon, because she felt… oddly satisfied. She had never been so happy to be sore.

Finally, there was a warm, soft sensation against her side. If she didn’t know better, it was skin, pressed against hers, but that would be ridiculous. Why would somebody be in b—?

Then, it all clicked.

With wide eyes, she looked down, and the first think she saw was a shock of blue hair cuddled against her neck. And past that, a body that disappeared under her sheets, and a distinctly arm-shaped lump stretched across Octavia’s midsection.

It wasn’t a dream, she thought.

The previous night flooded back into her mind. The meeting on the hilltop. The late-night snack at Sugarcube Corner. The piano duet. And hours of sex—more pleasure than she’d thought possible.

Thank goodness, it wasn’t a dream.

With a happy sigh, she pulled Vinyl’s body against her more tightly and kissed the top of her head. She didn’t feel like going back to sleep, so she simply lay there, enjoying the feel of Vinyl’s body against her and meditating on the previous night.

Between the Battle of the Bands and everything that happened after, it had easily been the strangest, most wonderful night of her life. If someone had told her, when the concert first ended and she took a seat on that hilltop to reflect on the uneasy feeling in her gut, that a girl like Vinyl would step into her life and sweep her away, she wouldn’t have believed them. And those uneasy feelings? Gone. Evaporated. After all, if they led to this, they couldn’t be all bad. Sure, the world might be a bigger, more confusing place than it had been before, but she knew now that she could face it. Especially with Vinyl by her side.

And that was perhaps the best thing about it all: the future. For the first time since those Sirens swept into her life and flipped everything over, Octavia found herself looking forward to tomorrow, because Vinyl would be a part of it.

…Right?

Biting her lip, she looked back down at Vinyl’s head.

What if she doesn’t feel the same way?

She was stirred from her second-guessing by a faint buzzing sound on the floor. Careful not to wake Vinyl, she raised her head and looked, finding that the sound seemed to be coming from Vinyl’s discarded shirt.

A cellphone, perhaps? Could be important. Well, there’s nothing for it.

“Hey, Vinyl,” she whispered, nudging the sleeping girl gently. “Vinyl, wake up.”

Vinyl stirred slightly, smacking her lips and groaning. “Mm-wha?” Peeking her eyes open, she looked up at Octavia’s face. To Octavia’s elation, she smiled. “Mornin’, Tavi.”

“Good morning. I’m sorry to wake you, but… I think your phone might be ringing.”

“My phone?” Vinyl hummed absently.

“I’m afraid so.”

Vinyl lay there for another moment, and then: “Oh, crap!” She darted upright and blearily stumbled out of bed, squatting her naked body down to fish her phone out of her breast pocket. She looked at the screen. “Shit,” she swore, taking a seat on the edge of the mattress and massaging her temple. “Shit shit shit.”

“Is everything alright?” Octavia asked, sitting up with concern in her eyes.

“It’s my brother,” Vinyl groaned. “He’s left, like, a dozen voice-mails. Shit!”

“Oh dear…”

“I told him I’d be late, because of the concert and all, but he was expecting me back last night. He’s okay with me staying over with friends, but—idiot that I am—I forgot to let him know. He’s gonna be pissed!”

Octavia lowered her eyes, guilt roiling in her gut. “I’m sorry if I got you in trouble, Vinyl. It didn’t even occur to me that you might be expected elsewhere.”

“Hey.” She lifted Octavia’s chin with a finger. “It’s cool. It’s not your fault I’m a doofus. But… y’know, I’d probably better be going.”

Octavia’s heart sank. “That… might be for the best.”

Vinyl looked at her for a long moment, then leaned forward to catch her eyes. “Hey, I’m not bailing on you, Tavi. Last night was probably the most awesome night of my life.”

The corners of her mouth twitching upwards, Octavia opened her mouth to reply…

And suddenly, there was a low, droning noise.

“Whoa, what’s that?” Vinyl asked, looking around.

Octavia stared into space with haunted eyes. “That, Vinyl, would be the sound of my garage door opening.”

“…Meaning?”

“Meaning my parents decided to come home early.”

Vinyl blinked. “This really isn’t our morning, is it?”

“No. Not it isn’t.” She took a deep breath. “Vinyl? Would you mind getting dressed and leaving before my parents catch me with a naked girl with my bed?”

“Roger.”

As one, both girls leapt out of bed and scrambled. Octavia darted around the room, handing Vinyl her clothes, which the DJ put on as quickly as she could. Once she had gotten her clothes on and more or less in order, Vinyl sat on the bed to put on her shoes. Octavia ran to her bedroom door, opening it and tapping her foot impatiently.

“Hurry, Vinyl! I will be grounded for the rest of my natural born life if my parents catch us.”

“Right,” Vinyl said, pulling the knot in her shoelace tight and getting to her feet. “I’m ready.”

The sound of a door opening and bodies shuffling into the house drifted up the stairs.

“Oh, come on!” Vinyl whined quietly.

“Out the window!” Octavia ran to the window in question and opened it.

“Are you crazy?”

“There’s a way to climb down, and from there you just go around the left side of the house. Just count our lucky stars that I had you park your car down the street.”

As the sound of activity continued downstairs, Vinyl climbed out the window and prepared to make a run for it.

“Vinyl, wait!”

She stopped, returning to the window. “What is it?”

Octavia hesitated, then asked, “What about… you know, us? Was this just a one-time thing, or…”

With a smile, Vinyl leaned forward and gave Octavia a passionate kiss, with just a hint of tongue. When Vinyl pulled away, she was smiling.

“Does that answer your question?” she asked.

Octavia released a happy sigh. “Yes. Yes, I suppose it does.”

“Awesome.” A wink. “I’ll talk to you later. Oh, and Tavi?”

“Yes?”

“I’m not complaining, but I thought you might like to know: You’re still naked.”

And with that, she was gone, scurrying down a lattice on the side of the house.

“I’m still…?” Looking down, Octavia saw that she had, in her scramble to get Vinyl dressed, neglected to cover her own nudity.

As if on cue, a voice just outside her door asked, “Octavia?”

“Blast!” Her eyes frantically darted around her room.

The doorknob turned, and the door opened. Her mother stepped inside. “Octavia?”

Octavia gave an exaggerated yawn, lying in her bed with the blankets pulled up to her neck. “Mother? What are you doing home?”

“Oh! Sorry, darling, I didn’t mean to wake you. Neither of us slept very well at the cabin, and we decided to come home early. We thought we might go out for breakfast. Do you want to come?”

“Oh, yes. That sounds wonderful. Just let me wake up and get dressed.”

“Alright, we’ll see you downstairs.” She looked across the room, seeing Octavia’s clothes strewn around the room. She took a sniff, and her nose wrinkled. “And you’ll need to clean this room up today. It’s not like you to let it get so messy.”

Octavia blushed, for more reasons than one. “Sorry, mother.”

With a shake of her head that seemed to say, ‘What am I going to do with you?’, Octavia’s mother left, closing the door behind her.

Octavia sighed with relief, raising a hand to her forehead. “That was far too close.”

After a moment to calm her nerves, Octavia got out of bed, deciding that a quick shower was in order. As she made her way into the bathroom, her thoughts turned to a certain blue-haired DJ, and she couldn’t keep the smile off her face.

Vinyl wanted to keep seeing her.

I… I think I have a girlfriend!

The thought, she found, was a happy one. The idea of dating a girl would still take a little getting used to, but all of her reservations were gone, wiped away by everything she had experienced the night before. Even the memory of it made her tingle in some very interesting places.

She smiled.

Yes. All was right with the world.

“Octavia?” came her mother’s voice from downstairs. “Are these your sunglasses on the piano?”

Octavia’s smile melted away. “Oh, f—!”

Author's Note

This story has been a long time coming.

From pretty much day one, I knew I wanted to write an Octascratch story, but it wasn't until Rainbow Rocks came out that ideas started solidifying. But over the next nine months, all I managed to write was a rough draft of the first chapter.

Thankfully, my Clopmas in July exercise gave me just the excuse I needed to finish it.

Despite being a couple of days late, I'm feeling pretty good about this one. Tell me what you think.

I. Allegro sostenuto

Even now, the air tingled with magic.

The concert was over, and most of the students had dispersed, leaving only a few stragglers chatting in the amphitheater seats or milling around onstage. The lights were out, and the amplifiers silent. But still the magic remained, mingling with the lingering smoke that hung in the air like the ghost of some mythical creature.

Octavia could feel it—almost taste it—as she observed the scene from atop one of the small hills overlooking the amphitheater, sitting on the grass with her arms around her legs and her chin resting on her knees. The cool night air ran its fingers through her dark hair, pulling a few strands loose so they dangled in front of her eyes. She didn’t blink, however, the images before her blending with recollections of the night’s events into a surreal daydream that twisted her insides into frozen knots.

She sighed—a pitiful sound, even to her ears. She was thankful no one was around to hear it.

Or so she assumed.

“Crazy night, huh?”

Octavia jolted, barely containing a yelp. Whipping her head around, she searched for the voice’s owner, and there, several feet to her left, a girl stood with her hands on her hips, looking out across the scene before them. Unruly hair, so electric blue that it seemed to glow in the dark, danced in the breeze, and a purple pair of sunglasses, worn in spite of the fact it was night, concealed her eyes.

Octavia recognized the girl, of course. For one thing, they both went to Canterlot High. For another, this very girl had played a central role in the ‘crazy night’ in question.

Octavia snorted, putting her chin back on her knees. “That’s putting it mildly. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”

“Yeah, I kinda figured,” the girl chuckled, taking a seat on the ground next to Octavia. “You looked awfully meditative, sitting over here on your lonesome.”

Octavia didn’t say anything at first, and they shared a brief, comfortable silence. Finally, Octavia muttered, “Do you remember when our school used to be normal?”

The girl glanced in her direction, one eyebrow appearing over the upper rim of her shades. “You’re kidding, right? This school’s always been weird,” she countered with a toothy grin. “That’s what I love about it. Keeps things from getting too boring. Besides, it’s like I always say: ‘Normal’ is only a statistical anomaly.”

“Yes, well…” Octavia rolled her eyes. “I don’t know about you, but I could really use some normalcy right about now.”

The girl seemed to mull that over. “Heh, maybe you’re right,” she said after a moment. “I have to admit, it’s been weirder than usual lately, what with the Fall Formal. And tonight really cranked it up to eleven.” She raised her sunglasses so they rested on top of her head, then looked to the sky with a striking pair of magenta eyes. “How often do you get to watch an all-girl rock band grow pony ears and go all expecto patronum on a trio of flying, singing seahorses?”

Octavia smiled—her first of the night. “You say that as if you weren’t right there with them. You practically emceed the whole affair.”

The girl laughed out loud. “I guess you got me there! Though, really, I was just in the right place at the right time. I mean, when that dog asked me for help, how was I supposed to know things would get so strange?”

Octavia blinked at her.

“Okay, yeah…” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m not helping my case, am I?”

“Not really,” Octavia replied with a subdued giggle.

Another easy silence passed between them, until the girl got back to her feet and stretched out her back with a series of tiny pops. “So anyways, I heard some of the others are gonna swing by Sugarcube Corner for a late-night snack, and I thought I’d do the same. Wanna come with?”

Octavia paused, then turned away from the girl, laying her cheek against her knee and sighing. “Oh, I don’t know. I’m not sure I’m up for being sociable right now.”

“Oh, come on, girl!” She tapped Octavia’s shoe with her own. “It’s gotta beat moping here by yourself, amirite?”

Octavia panned her gaze across the amphitheater again. By now, nearly all the students had left, and even the magic in the air was starting to fade. It was getting quieter. Darker. A handful of intrepid stars broke through the light pollution overhead.

Fighting off a sudden chill, Octavia looked back at the other girl, who was still waiting for an answer with an expectant grin on her face. Looking at the girl—her face, that smile, the way her eyes caught the moonlight—Octavia weathered her way through a slight fluttery sensation in her stomach, took a deep breath, and answered:

“Perhaps you’re right.”

“That’s more like it!” the girl said. “Let’s get a move on, then.”

She extended a hand to help Octavia up, and, after a brief moment of hesitation, Octavia took it, the strange new sensation in her gut growing stronger as she was lifted to her feet. She tried to distract herself by brushing bits of grass off her skirt.

“The name’s Vinyl, by the way.” The girl extended a fist in her direction. Octavia looked at the offered with some uncertainty before awkwardly bumping it with her own.

“Octavia,” she said. “Octavia Melody.”

“Pleased to meet you, Octavia Melody,” Vinyl replied with a formality that was at once exaggerated and good-natured. Then, with a friendly but wince-inducing slap to Octavia’s back, she said, “Come on! My car’s this way.”

“I saw this thing during the concert,” Octavia said, staring at the machine in front of her, “but I had no idea it was a car!”

The vehicle in question, still parked on the hill from which the Rainbooms had faced the Dazzlings, had already reverted back to its automotive form. Its coloration, Octavia noticed, matched Vinyl’s to a T, and a bizarre, equine hood ornament reared up on its front end.

What’s with all this horse-based imagery lately? Octavia wondered.

“Yeah, it’s my pride and joy,” Vinyl said with a smile, using one of her purple arm warmers to buff out a scuff on its hood. “I got the car itself from my folks when I turned sixteen, and… well, let’s just say I’ve customized it a bit. Y’know, a modification, an accessory there—that sort of thing.”

“I would say so,” Octavia breathed, at once awed and frightened of the strange car.

Vinyl slid into the driver’s seat, and Octavia timorously followed suit, fastening her seat belt and pulling the strap extra tight. “Did you do it all yourself?”

“Well, my bro’s really good with cars, so he helped me. Like, with the welding and stuff.” She put the key into the ignition, started the car, and gave a devilish grin as the engine roared to life. “But it’s all my design.”

“Impressive.” She blinked at what had to have been the most ridiculously elaborate control panel to ever grace—or inflict, as the case may be—a dashboard. “My word…”

Vinyl grinned. “Oh, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Check this out!” She flipped one of the switches, and music began to thunder from the speakers, the air itself seeming to shake from the bass-line as if from the footsteps of some Lovecraftian abomination. Octavia clamped her hands over her ears from the suddenness and the ferocity of the noise. Vinyl, noticing her discomfort, turned the volume back down with an apologetic wince. “Oops. Heh, my bad.”

“No worries,” Octavia replied, nevertheless working her jaw to pop her ears. “It just caught me off guard, is all. I don’t know how you can stand to have it so loud.”

She shrugged. “I guess I’m just used to it.” With that, Vinyl put the car in drive and began making her way out of Canterlot City Park. After a moment, she said, “Besides, you don’t really strike me as the EDM type.”

“Well, I like to think I have an open mind, but yes, I’m more of a classical and jazz fan, usually.”

“You’re a cellist, right?”

Octavia blinked at her. “How did you…?”

Vinyl chuckled. “Puh-lease! I’ve seen you lugging that ginormous case around enough times.”

It was Octavia’s turn to grin. “Well, actually, I was just surprised you knew what a cello was. To borrow your phrase: You don’t really strike me as the classical type.”

“Hey, give me some credit,” she replied with a glare over the top of her shades. “I may have a thing for EDM, but I can dig the oldies. Good’s good, no matter the genre.”

With a nod of agreement, Octavia turned her attention out the window, watching as they pulled out of the park and onto the well-lit city streets. Letting one arm dangle out the open window, Octavia watched the passing buildings and sorted through her thoughts. Suddenly, something Vinyl had said sprang back into her mind.

Turning back to the other girl, she said, “So, you’ve noticed me around school, have you?”

To her surprise, Vinyl didn’t answer right away. Instead, she fidgeted in the driver’s seat and kept her eyes glued to the road. Eventually: “A few times. Y’know, just… around. No bigs.”

Octavia stared at her for another moment, then looked back out the window. “It’s a shame, really,” she said idly.

“Hmm?”

“That we’ve never really crossed paths before now. What with our shared love of music.”

Vinyl merely nodded.

“You’re a DJ, yes?”

“Among other things.” Whatever awkwardness had come over her before vanished like a puff of smoke in the wind. She began counting off on her fingers. “I have a part time job at the music store in the mall. I produce my own music. I play piano…”

Octavia’s eyebrows rose in interest. “Piano? Really?”

“Yeah,” she said with a shrug. “I mean… I’m okay, I guess. Started taking lessons when I was six. That’s where my love of music started, really. Obviously, my horizons have expanded a bit since then, but… yeah, I can play alright.” She drove in silence for a few seconds, then snorted. “I guess you can say that piano isn’t my—” She lifted her sunglasses and smirked in Octavia’s direction. “—forte.”

A laugh escaped Octavia’s mouth before she could stop it. “Oh, that’s awful!”

Beaming, Vinyl lowered her shades and turned back to the road.

Yet another comfortable silence passed between them, and, once she recovered from Vinyl’s pun, Octavia slipped back into her thoughts. Or, more specifically, her memories. Vinyl had mentioned seeing her around school. Much the same was true for Octavia, of course. Between her hair and the sunglasses she always wore, Vinyl was pretty easy to spot. Octavia had always been a tad curious—just a tad, mind—about the other girl. Before tonight, the only things she’d known about her was that she DJ’d a lot of the schools functions, such as the Fall Formal dance, and that she never seemed to...

Octavia blinked.

“It occurs to me,” she said suddenly.

Vinyl glanced over at her. “What’s that?”

“I don’t believe I’ve ever heard you speak before.”

Vinyl smiled, rolling her eyes behind her shades.

“Not that we’ve ever spoken before tonight, of course,” Octavia added. “But I suppose I thought you might be mute, or something.”

Vinyl chuckled. “Oh, don’t worry. You’re not the first to think that. I dunno, I guess I’m just not a big talker. I prefer to let my music speak for me, y’dig? That, and I enjoy listening.”

“To music?” Octavia asked, prodding a pair of earphones that hung from the rear-view mirror.

“Well, yeah. But… like, people too.” Vinyl was silent for a moment, as if organizing her thoughts. “Most people don’t do that. Listen, I mean. They’re so busy making noise that they don’t know how to just stop and take it in.”

Octavia considered her words. “That’s… rather insightful.”

“Meh, I have my moments.”

“Though,” Octavia said with a grin, “you’ve been quite talkative tonight."

“Well, it’s not like I never talk. Besides…” Vinyl once again fidgeted in her seat, “You kinda make me want to talk."

Octavia felt a warmth in her cheeks. She immediately faced out the window and let the cool night air wash across her face, trying to ignore the wheels turning in her head.

“Here you go, dearies,” said Mrs. Cake, returning with their orders—an ice cream sundae for Vinyl and a hot chocolate for Octavia. They thanked her, and she moved to the next table.

Even at this late hour, Sugarcube Corner was buzzing with noise and activity. Most of the clientele were students from Canterlot High, packed into nearly every available space and chatting excitedly among themselves about the night’s events. Octavia and Vinyl had been lucky to grab a booth shortly after arriving.

Vinyl shot an amused look at Octavia’s order. “Hot chocolate? Really? It’s Spring, you know.”

Octavia hunched lower in her seat. “It always makes me feel better when I’ve had a bad day,” she replied defensively.

“Hey, it’s cool!” Vinyl said quickly, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I wasn’t making fun.”

Octavia looked at Vinyl’s hand out of her periphery, smiled, and took a sip.

They spent a few minutes simply enjoying their treats, though Octavia could tell her companion was deep in thought, pausing between bites of sundae and staring off into space with her spoon dangling from her hand.

Sure enough, Vinyl eventually said, “So, Tavi— Do you mind if I call you Tavi?”

Octavia raised an eyebrow. “I suppose not.”

“Cool. So anyways, Tavi... Is everything okay?”

“Okay? What do you mean?”

“C’mon, I saw you back at the amphitheater. The way you were just sitting there like a lost puppy, staring off into the distance. And you just said that you drink hot chocolate when you have a bad day. It’s pretty obvious something’s bugging you, so spill it.”

Octavia looked at her, then turned back to her cocoa with a sigh. “Oh, it’s nothing important. I wouldn’t want to bother you with it.”

“Aww, don’t be silly. I told you before, I like to listen. That’s what friends do, right?”

“F-friends?” Octavia said quietly, more to herself than Vinyl.

“Well… sure! C’mon, bend my ear.”

Though the idea of telling Vinyl what was bothering her wasn’t all that appealing to her, Octavia sensed the other girl wouldn’t rest until she… What was the word? ‘Spilled’?

She took a deep breath. “Well, alright…” She took a drink of her cocoa for courage. “I guess… with everything that’s happened lately—the Dazzlings, the Battle of the Bands, and so on—I’ve just been… thrown for a loop.”

“Yeah, it’s been pretty wild, but…” Vinyl tapped her chin with her spoon. “It wasn’t really all that bad, was it? I mean, everything turned out fine.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” she replied with a snort. “You came out of it looking like a hero, while I made a fool of myself.”

“You mean that spell thing the Dazzlings had everyone under? Because you weren’t the only one effected by it. No one’ll hold any of that against you.”

“It’s not about everyone else. I’ll hold it against me.”

Vinyl watched her closely, but remained silent.

Octavia took another sip, swishing the comforting liquid around with her tongue before swallowing. “How I acted while under their influence…” she continued. “That isn’t who I am, Vinyl. They got me to betray everything I believe in as a musician. I love music! It’s my passion! I signed up for the Musical Showcase because I hoped it would give me a chance to celebrate the music that I love and share it with others. But then those three… ‘girls’—” She made air quotes with her fingers. “—made it all into a debased competition. I would never have agreed to that, if I had known. It’s… well, it’s beneath me, to be honest. That might sound arrogant, but it’s how I feel. That’s not what music is about to me, and I try to comport myself with some semblance of dignity.” She took a deep breath and released it in a bitter exhale. “But I got sucked into it anyway, in spite of myself. And I was humiliated as a result.”

Vinyl opened her mouth to respond, but Octavia cut her off.

“Yes, yes—I know. It was magic!” She wiggled her fingers for emphasis. “But that doesn’t really change anything. At least… not to me. When I think of the way I behaved—the arguments I got into, and the things I said about Sunset Shimmer… Can I really just blame that on a spell? Or are those hateful things buried somewhere inside me, just waiting to get out?”

She felt Vinyl staring at her as she drained the rest of her cocoa in one mighty pull.

“And to add insult to injury,” Octavia continued with a humorless chuckle, setting her empty mug down with more force than was strictly necessary, “I didn’t even win the contest. I devote my life to perfecting my art, and I get my clock cleaned by a pop rock group in the first round.”

“Well, honestly, that wasn’t very fair,” Vinyl opined. “For one thing, you were playing two entirely different styles of music. How do you even go about judging something like that? And for another, how is one person with an acoustic instrument supposed to stand up to six people with amps?”

“Maybe you’re right,” Octavia murmured, eyeing the bottom of her mug.

“Of course I’m right! Look, I’ve heard you play, and you’re good. Like, really good. You have absolutely nothing to worry about, believe me.”

“You’re just saying that…” she said, trying and failing to fight off a blush.

Vinyl leaned forward to catch her eyes. “No. I’m not.”

“But… you don’t even like classical music.”

“Says who?” Vinyl countered, eyebrows furrowed. "Remember what I said earlier? Good's good, no matter the genre. Just because I like dubstep and stuff doesn’t mean that’s all I like. So take it from someone who knows: You sounded great." She turned back to her ice cream, crossing her legs under the table. “And as far as the other stuff goes... I'll admit I don't know you very well, but you don't seem like you have a 'hateful' bone in your body. Heck, I'd say the fact that you're worried about it proves that you're a good person. I mean, would a bad person even care? So don't sweat it, 'kay? You seem like a really cool girl." She hesitated briefly, then quietly added: "That's what made me want to talk to you in the first place."

Octavia’s eyes widened. She stared at Vinyl, searching for any sign of sarcasm or mockery and finding none. The blue-haired girl simply finished off the remnants of her sundae, seemingly oblivious to Octavia’s reaction.

“I see,” the cellist said finally. She nervously passed the empty mug from hand to hand across the tabletop. “And do you still think so? That I'm 'cool', I mean?”

“Yeah,” Vinyl said with a smile and no hesitation. “I mean, you could stand to have more confidence in yourself. But yeah, you’re cool.”

“Thanks,” Octavia said with a shy smile of her own. “And sorry for being so whiny and dramatic. It’s just… a lot to take in, you know? It’s really forced me to take stock of everything.” She snorted. “And, if nothing else, the fact that magic is real will take some getting used to.”

Vinyl laughed. “I know, right?”

Octavia laughed along, though it was half-hearted and slowly died in her throat. After a brief moment of silence, she said, “I came to a troubling realization earlier, back on the hill.” She tongued the inside of her cheek before continuing, “Something is missing.”

“Missing?” Vinyl asked with a raised eyebrow.

“From my life.”

“Oh.” Vinyl fidgeted with her arm warmers. “Do you know what it is?”

“I haven’t the foggiest.”

Octavia turned and looked at the other girl, and Vinyl met her eyes. For a quiet, unmeasured moment, they regarded each other, purple and magenta orbs volleying unspoken questions through the air between them. All the sound in the bakery, all the other customers, faded away, forgotten, and that same fluttery sensation from earlier crept back into Octavia’s stomach. She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again in silence.

The moment was effectively demolished by the return of Mrs. Cake.

“So, how was everything?” she asked.

They both gave a start, looking away from each other.

“A-awesome!”

“Yes, very good. Yes…”

Mrs. Cake smiled. “That’s what we like to hear.” She took their dishes and left.

A silence draped over the two of them, and for the first time all night it wasn’t especially comfortable. It was a heavy silence. Expectant. Uncertain.

Octavia shifted in her seat, then moved to stand. “Well, I’d better be going.”

Following her lead, Vinyl got to her feet. “Hey, you need a ride?”

“Oh, no, it’s fine. There’s a bus stop just down the street from my house.”

“A bus?” Vinyl said skeptically. “Pfft! Forget that! I can’t you wandering these dangerous city streets all by yourself.”

“Canterlot’s one of the safest cities in the state,” she countered, looking at her flatly.

“Beside the occasional siren or she-demon, right?”

Octavia blinked. “Touché.”

“See? We girls have to look out for each other."

Octavia held a hand to her forehead in a mock swoon. “My, how chivalrous!”

With a dashing smile, Vinyl offered her arm to Octavia. “Shall we go, milady?”

“Very well, Dame Knight.” With a poorly concealed giggle, she took Vinyl’s arm. “Let us away!”

Arm in arm and laughing among themselves, they walked out of Sugarcube Corner and into the night.

Author's Note

~~Interesting~~ Fact: I originally intended to write Vinyl as mute.

Turns out... that's kinda hard. Especially in a story like this. Besides, dialogue is one of my favorite things to write, so... yeah. I scrapped that idea.