Chapter One: A long road before us

Vinyl groaned and blinked her eyes open. The light shining into her room woke her up, penetrating her eyelids. The weight on her chest was a lot lower than she remembered — right now that weight was pressing on her bladder. Opening her eyes, Vinyl noticed with a smile that Octavia had somehow shifted around and managed to end up the other way around than she’d been when she’d fallen asleep on Vinyl.

The mare felt, in a word, naughty. Her eyes looked down and saw the grey mare’s flank pointed right at her. Vinyl knew she shouldn’t look, that it was inappropriate. But right that second, Celestia herself couldn’t remove her eyes from the rise of that flank, from the cute way her tail moved ever so slightly in her sleep, and even the small glimpses of Tavi’s marehood all but winking at her.

It would be so simple to reach out and touch it, to feel her in the most intimate way possible. The mere thought of it caused Vinyl to want it more, to practically need to do it. The longer she looked, the more she wanted to touch, and the more she wanted to touch, the longer she looked. It was a vicious circle that caused her no small amount of grief, because as much as she wanted to, she’d never take advantage of her marefriend like that.

The day would come when they would know the taste of each other, when they would each have the other squirming and moaning at their actions. Vinyl knew that with all her heart, and she wouldn’t risk it for a cheap thrill now.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, Vinyl had a whole other problem to focus on. Her mare was pressing upon her bladder, hard, causing her to need to pee pretty badly. With a look at her marefriend, she decided to let her sleep and try to squirm away — an act that was easier said than done. Every movement of the unicorn caused the grey earth pony to squirm and wiggle in her sleep, upset that her pillow was getting a mind of its own and wanting it to be still like a good pillow should.

After three failed attempts — one in which Vinyl was reminded just how strong an earth pony could be — Vinyl felt like she either had to take drastic action or she was going to be forced to buy a new bed. Powering her horn, she lifted Octavia up, careful to make sure that the mare was not moved from her position. With the direct pressure removed from her bladder, Vinyl could take her time with the next part. She slid herself out of bed and positioned all the pillows she had into a makeshift Vinyl-pillow.

Octavia squirmed a little as she was placed back down. The Vinyl pillows were soft, but they weren’t Vinyl herself. Still, the mare didn’t awaken.

Vinyl kissed her on the forehead and then made doubletime to the restroom.

It was a photo finish, but she made it in time.

As she came back, something she didn't count upon awaited her. A grumbling and slightly worried earth pony. “I thought you left me alone again.” Octavia smiled.

“Hey, that one time was a club emergency!” Vinyl defended herself.

“I know — just trying to get under your coat,” the earth pony replied with a yawn. “Would you mind preparing breakfast today?”

“Of course not. How about your favourite, breakfast in bed?” Vinyl chuckled.

“That sounds nice. But I want to take a shower, so I think breakfast at the table will have to do.”

“What? You don’t want to spend all day cuddled up with each other in bed?”

“Vinyl, careful,” Octavia playfully teased. “You know what happened last time. You were late to work and I ‘over-cuddled’ my rehearsals.”

“Small price to pay,” Vinyl said as she blew Octavia a raspberry and turned to go start breakfast. Tavi chuckled as she watched Vinyl go. Sitting up, she stretched her neck, and was rewarded with a small crack as her bones resettled. She followed her neck with her hooves, feeling better with each and every action.

Tavi rolled out of bed and got to her hooves. She arched her back and stretched one more time before making her way into the bathroom.

“VINYL SCRATCH!” Octavia yelled upon seeing the mess.

Vinyl ducked her head. Okay, maybe it wasn’t a photo finish after all, she thought with a chuckle.

“CLEAN THAT UP,” came the furious shout, and Vinyl sighed before focusing her magic and grabbing the cleaning supplies to head to the bathroom.

***

“I’m sorry, for the seventh time,” Vinyl grunted from across the table.

Octavia huffed and went to grab the syrup.

“Octavia? Tavi, forgive me?” Vinyl said with a smile.

“How can you—” Tavi stopped when she saw the small cute pouty-face on Vinyl’s muzzle. She sighed, closed her eyes, and chuckled a little.

That action caused Vinyl to smile as well. “You know, when you think about it, it was kinda your fault.”

“My fault? How in the wide, wide world of Equestria could it possibly me by fault?”

“You’re so cute when you're sleeping, I didn’t want to wake you up, so I kinda pushed my luck.”

Tavi’s muzzle went from denial, outrage, flattered, and then to an expression that all but said, ‘wow, you’re an idiot’. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

“That's always a plus,” Vinyl chuckled, “and if it makes sure that I can keep my super hot and awesome marefriend, it’s really worth it.”

Octavia shook her head and chuckled. “Vinyl, I’d never leave you over something like that.”

“So, you’re saying…”

“NO.”

“Damn.”

“The point is, you should have just moved me, or cleaned up after yourself.”

“Noted,” Vinyl said with a grin. “Sorry, just got distracted.”

“So you’ve said. Who knew I could be so distracting?”

“I did,” Vinyl added, causing the grey mare to blush once again.

They finished breakfast in relative silence, each pony stealing odd glances at the other when they could. The few times they’d lock eyes, one would turn away, blushing.

Celestia, dammit! Why do I feel like a filly in school again? Vinyl thought, cursing.

Why am I suddenly so nervous in her presence? Octavia thought, fidgeting on her chair.

“Neon wanted to see me today. We’re going over a few things for my gigs,” Vinyl suddenly spoke up, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

Octavia raised an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t have any gigs this weekend?”

“Yeah, and I promised you to spend the whole time with you, but he said it was really important,” the unicorn said with a wince.

Octavia glared at her, before speaking. “As long as you promise not to stay out too long and that you won’t agree to any other silly stuff!” She finished her plate. “I know you two want to bring back the ‘old’ DJ Pon3 in your shows. But promise me you won’t overdo it.”

Vinyl pouted. “Hey, my stuff’s not silly!”

Octavia glared at her. “That’s not a promise.”

Vinyl’s pout became a frown. “Fine, I promise,” she mumbled.

“What was that?” Octavia asked.

“I said I promise.”

“Better. And I hope you don’t start making it a habit of missing our plans because of ‘last minute’ alterations.”

“What?”

“I don’t like it when people cancel on me, Vinyl.”

“It’s just this one time!”

“And the club emergency.”

“Two times.”

“And whatever comes up next.”

“Why you riding my flank about it?” Vinyl asked.

Octavia glared at her. “Because if I can’t trust you to keep your word on the small stuff, how can I trust you to keep it on the big stuff?”

“I-I—” Vinyl shut up.

“It’s a mark of your character, Vinyl. I’ll never force you to promise me anything, but I do expect you to keep the ones you make.”

“Lessons on how to be a refined mare?”

“Lessons on how to be a decent pony,” Octavia snorted. “Vinyl, I don't want you to change, but I want you to adjust to some things I think are important,” Octavia added softly.

“Sorry,” Vinyl said, again, for what felt like the tenth time this morning.

Tavi felt bad about that. “I know your life before we met was… different.” Vinyl snorted at the absurdity of that understatement. “And I’m not expecting you to suddenly be perfect or anything. I need to adjust to you as much as you need to adjust to me. So what do you say, fifty-fifty? We’ll both make changes and meet somewhere in the middle?”

Vinyl looked up at that. “Let’s face facts, it’s going to be more like eighty-twenty. I know I have a lot to improve upon.”

“Why do you think that?”

Vinyl laughed out loud. “Why? Just look at you! You’re a beautiful, absolutely gorgeous, and refined mare. And then look at me.”

“You mean the talented, cute, exotic, and self-confident mare I see before my eyes?”

“You invited another mare over?! Where is she? I’ll kick her flank!” Vinyl said as she playfully got up and looked around for this ‘other’ mare.

Tavi laughed at that. Causing Vinyl to sit back down, chuckling herself.

“I asked you to adjust, not to change,” Tavi said as they settled down. “Would I love you if I wanted you to change?”

The white unicorn actually blushed at that before noticing something strange when she went to take another bite of her breakfast. She bit on an empty fork. Looking down, she smiled as she saw her plate was empty.

“Well, shall I take care of the dishes? You did cook,” Tavi asked.

“Nope, I got it!” Vinyl replied as she took the dishes away from Octavia using her magic.

She’s still a dork, but she’s my dork, Octavia smiled as Vinyl went to clean the dishes.

As Vinyl loaded the wub-washer, Octavia grunted as she realized just what would happen next. Sure as the sun rises, when Vinyl turned on the wub-washer, Octavia started to feel her teeth rattle in her skull.

Part of my adjustment to her, part of my adjustment to her, the refined mare told herself over and over as the wubs seemed to increase in volume.

Her eyes glanced up to Vinyl. Even though it was early in the morning and the very act looked like it’d give a pony a headache, Vinyl was headbanging with her wubs.

She’s still cute when she does that. Even if it gives me a headache every morning.

Octavia got up as a thought occurred to her. She walked over and tapped Vinyl on the shoulder.

The white mare turned and looked at her. “WHAT’S UP, TAVI?”

Octavia gestured for her to turn down the wub-washer.

After a second's hesitation, Vinyl did just that, “What’s up?”

“Well, I was wondering if that thing works with any music?”

“Of course, you just plug it in here,” Vinyl said as she gestured to the outlet leading to a set of sound controls.

“Think we could try some of mine this time?”

Vinyl, taken aback by that, paused for a few seconds. Then she remembered their talk. She smiled. “Sure, Tavi, anything for you.”

Octavia grinned as she went into the other room to retrieve one of her records. Her eyes darted to the line of music. Hmm… the classical works of Bethooves… no, let me see if I can find something that Vinyl might like as well. Her eyes turned to one record in particular. For Octavia, it was more of a guilty pleasure. But she was sure that Vinyl would like it all the same.

“Here you go, Vi, put this one in.”

“Who is it?” Vinyl asked, spinning the black record around in her magical grip, looking for a name.

“Trust me,” Octavia said with a smile. She had left the cover in the other room for a reason. She wanted this to be a surprise.

Vi shrugged and did just that. She put the record on and started up the wub-washer all over again.

Octavia smiled as music started playing. The music that played belonged to a band that took classical songs and took it to just the right amount of techo, not too much to override the classical, but techo enough to make it fit for a nightclub.

“This is epic!” Vinyl shouted over the music.

Tavi just smiled as she walked to the other room. Music, that’s something we’ll always have, she thought before taking a last glance at the unicorn. But I will do everything I can to make this work.

Octavia made her way to the living room, where the daily dosage of mail waited. She had no idea when the unicorn did it, but the mail was always there when she woke up. Looking through the letters, she noticed bills, invitations, and a certain letter she gasped at.

It was a light-blue one, exactly the same colour her father used to send her, and a note was attached to it.

Hey Octavia,

We passed by your old house yesterday, and noticed this letter in the box. It was addressed to you, so we brought it here. You should really give everypony your new address really soon.

Lyra and Bon Bon

Octavia sighed. Giving her father her new address to stay in contact — something that might even prompt him to come visit — wasn’t exactly at the top of her priority list. In fact, she had intended on hiding it as long as possible, but now that this letter was here, she wouldn’t get the chance to avoid it much longer. Growling slightly, she opened the letter.

My dear Octavia,

It’s been a few months since you last wrote your mother and I a letter. We hope that everything is alright with you, and that Baritone is keeping you in a good shape during your rehearsals. If it’s to your pleasure, your mother and I have decided to visit you in the first month of spring, which should be in a month, depending on when this letter arrives, please give us your answer soon.

Your father,

Legretto Melody

“He just left me alone and now he wants to talk with me?” Octavia scowled silently.

“Maybe you should write him back.”

Octavia looked up, shocked to see Vinyl staring at her. More so that she had actually heard her. With the wub-washer blaring in the background, the mare’s trademark headphones over her ears, Vinyl had somehow heard what she had said. “How did you—”

“I can read lips,” Vinyl said.

“Vinyl, I don’t know. He just left me out of the blue so long ago, and he only started to write to me again after I started at the orchestra. He didn’t care for me until I did something he approved of.”

“I know, but everypony deserves a second chance. Just look at us,” Vinyl chuckled.

Octavia had to smile at that. “Yeah, I know. I…” — she frowned — “how did you know that?”

Vinyl gulped. She’d never told Octavia what she knew. Never told her what she had talked with her mother about when she was at death’s door. “I-I assumed it. Well, you never talked about it, so I guessed they moved away or just, like my mother, you know,” the unicorn quickly tried to improvise. The look on Octavia’s face told the mare she wasn’t quite satisfied with that answer. Vinyl shrugged. “Write him back, or don’t — it’s up to you. I’ll be by your side no matter what you decide.”

“I know that, thank you.” Octavia nuzzled her with a smile.

Vinyl smiled as she pecked Tavi on the side of the muzzle, then turned to head to the bathroom. After all, she had to get to the club to work on the set with Neon Lights.

Octavia watched her go, unsure about what she wanted to do, but all the same happy to have Vinyl’s support regardless what she decided.

***

Vinyl arrived in the club early that day. Which, in and of itself, was strange. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been in a club before nightfall.

“Hey, you made it!” Neon Lights shouted.

“Yeah, but next time you better give me a call earlier. Tavi will eat my mane if you do that again.” Vinyl nudged his shoulder.

“She got you on a ball and chain already, huh?” Neon joked.

“Hey, for that mare, I’d play dog all night if I had to,” Vinyl replied, blushing slightly.

“Sexy. Whom we talking about?” A voice behind them asked.

Vinyl tuned to see Sassaflash walked up to them. The turquoise pegasus had the same smile upon her face she always did when she laid eyes upon Vinyl. However, that smile went away when Sassaflash went in for her kiss, something Vinyl pulled away from, “What’s wrong, Vi, not happy to see me?”

“You know that this isn’t a thing between us anymore, Sassa,” Vinyl answered.

“We’ve known each other forever, Vi, why do you care now?” the pegasus complained.

“Hm, not true. If you count my whole life, I’ve know her much longer than you. But that’s not the topic right now. We still work together, but nothing that goes too far,” Vinyl replied.

Sassaflash turned to Neon. “You dork! You let her get with a mare that doesn’t know the definition of the word fun? What the buck?”

“Hey, it’s not my doing! Some things just happen Sass, can’t help it if my chariot is a mare magnet!” Neon snorted.

“Let me correct myself; you are a big dork!” Sassa pouted.

“Sass, I’m sorry. But this is happening. Can you be okay with it?” Vinyl asked in a very serious tone.

“After everything we did? I know you more intimately than this mare knows her own forehooves. How many times have you two slept together? And no, I don’t mean just in the same bed, don’t squirm away!” Sassaflash stomped a hoof down.

The blush on Vinyl’s face told the truth about that. In terms of her previous relationships, this one was moving at a snail’s pace.

“You haven’t, have you?” Sassaflash said with a laugh.

“Why the buck do you care?” Vinyl growled, “I leave the decision to you. Either we continue to work together and you keep your wings, muzzle, and hooves to yourself. Or we end this right here. Your call.”

“You’ll come back to me, you always do.”

“Don’t hold your breath, and that’s still not an answer.”

Sassaflash scowled, but relented. “Fine, no fun with Vinyl. For now.” She added the last bit under her breath.

“No fun while I’m drunk either,” Vinyl added carefully, knowing Sassa too well to simply let it be. “And you won’t bother Tavi, either!”

The turquoise pegasus growled at that, but nodded her head in submission.

Vinyl gave her a look that all but said ‘I’m watching you’, before turning to Neon, “Alright, let’s get started. I promised Tavi I wouldn’t drag flank today.”

“You’re really whipped, aren't you?”

Vinyl blushed. “What can I say? I think she’s the one.”

Neon laughed as he lead the way to the back room, Vinyl followed behind smiling. Sassaflash was anything but smiling as she followed behind.

***

“Tavi, I’m home!” Vinyl shouted as she looked up at the clock. She was proud of herself, at the five hour mark she had called it quits, even though they were in the middle of a rather epic recording session.

“I know,” came the call from the living room.

“What are you doing?”

“Writing the letter to my father,” Octavia snorted. “It’s not as easy as I thought.”

Vinyl's eyes took in the pile of wadded up paper overflowing the garbage can. She whistled, impressed that Octavia had put so much work into it, but also somewhat worried that she was making it harder than it needed to be.

The grey earth pony tore up another page and tossed it to the side, “UGH, this—” she paused, feeling a hoof on her back.

“It’s just words, Tavi. I’ve seen you conquer much harder things than this.”

“That’s just it, this is the stallion that practically,” Octavia caught herself before saying any more.

“What, Tavi? I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.”

Octavia looked into her eyes, hesitating. I have to trust her. She will always be at my side.

“My father is Legretto Melody,” she blurted out.

“What?”

“My father is Legretto Melody, he basically owns all the business that are classically orientated in Equestria. Some even over the border in the Griffon Empire and other places.” Octavia sighed. “That’s why this is so hard. He won’t accept what I want to write him. He won’t accept you, nor our relationship.”

“You sure about that?” Vinyl asked.

“More than about anything else,” Octavia replied sadly.

“I don’t know, seems like you could give your old stallion the benefit of the doubt, maybe he’ll be happy that you’re happy?”

“Vi! What would you do about a stallion that just leaves his daughter in the dirt when she is barely out of her fillyhood?”

“Me? I’d want to kick him in the nuts next time I saw him. A stallion like that isn’t deserving of the name.”

“This is what my father is! He just left me, left me with nothing but myself, talent and friends!” Octavia suddenly shouted.

“And yet look how you turned out.”

“Vinyl, I—”

“Hey, relax. Screw him, don’t write him back, don’t tell him a single thing.”

“You think I sho—”

“Or, you can write him and shove everything you’ve done in his face, everything you’ve become. Show him what you’ve achieved, what you’ve accomplished in spite of him. It’s your call, Tavi.”

“Vinyl… I—” Octavia paused before suddenly kissing the unicorn, pulling her upon her, pressing their bodies together in a passionate kiss.

When they pulled back, Vinyl actually found herself completely out of breath. The kiss had been so sudden, so amazing, and so surprising. “You’re welcome?” she said unsurely.

“You really are the best,” Octavia said with a smile as she sat back down to write the letter. This time, this time she knew exactly what she wanted to say.

“Any time,” Vinyl said with a smile as she watched the grey mare go back to work. She couldn’t make out what Octavia was writing but the speed and self-assuredness in which she was writing it told her all she needed to know. Her Octavia had found her confidence again.

“What will you write him?”

“The truth, but to a point that he will see the rest for himself in a month. We will show him how happy we are,” Octavia smiled. I just hope that this is a good idea, she added in her mind.

“If he really loves you as your father, he’ll understand and accept it.” Vinyl smiled. “I know that my mother is proud of me and supports us in everything we do.”

“You mean would be?” Octavia corrected slowly.

“Yeah, yeah,” Vinyl quickly added. Maybe I’ll tell her what happened in that snowy night, one of these days, anyway.

Vinyl turned to the gramophone and turned it on. She already knew one of Octavia’s classical records was on it. With the smallest amount of magic, she lowered the needle onto the record and let it play.

The song was soothing, at least to Octavia. To Vinyl, her enjoyment of it came from seeing Tavi visibly relax. It was as she said earlier; a trade, so to speak. Each of them adjusting to the other.

When the grey mare started to hum to the music, Vinyl smiled and made her way to the kitchen to prepare them both dinner. She looked back only once, catching the smallest smile on Octavia’s face. She didn’t care what Sassaflash or others would say. Yes, maybe their relationship ran slowly, but she knew that there would be time for everything.

That kiss showed that it’s always the quiet ones you have to watch out for. Vinyl chuckled.

Author's Note

Aaand Chapter one, there ya go!
Expect weekly updates for now, every Wednesday.