“Vinyl, I swear to Celestia…”
Octavia sat underneath the largest tree in all of Ponyville proper with her head held in her hooves. The moonlight fell softly on the cobbled ground, and the earth pony mare groaned to herself as she refused to look upward.
“Tavi, it’s so… so… pretty up here!” a second voice crooned from up above.
Gritting her teeth, Octavia replied. “I really don’t want to hear it, Vinyl.”
“B-but… the stars!”
“Still not interested.”
“And the moon. The mooooooooon, Tavi!”
“Not. Listening.” She shook her head. “Vinyl, just come down. Please.” Finally, she lowered her hooves and glanced up at her roommate.
Vinyl Scratch lay sprawled out across several tree branches, her head and limbs dangling down. The evening breeze blew her mane and the leaves about, and her coos of happiness filtered down to the smouldering ball of frustration that tapped her hoof down below. “What if I don’t wanna?” Vinyl asked coyly.
“Ugh!” Octavia threw her head back. “I really don’t understand what’s gotten into you! You’ve been up there for four bloody hours!”
“Obviously not long enough,” cheered the unicorn. “It’s fun up here. Plus,” she said as she rolled over to look down at Octavia, batting her eyelashes as she did, “you’re really freaking adorable when you get flustered.”
The other mare’s face flushed. “You… I… Wha— Vinyl! Just get down here!”
“Hmm… lemme think about it…” Vinyl scratched underneath her chin for a moment, her eyes narrowed in concentration. “No.”
“Oh, you little…” Octavia stood to her hooves and let out a quiet growl. “You do realize that I left my key to the apartment at home today and that I can’t get back inside without you, right?”
“Eeyup.”
“So, does that make you feel like maybe there’s more at stake here than you just wanting to be in a tree?”
“Eenope.”
Octavia didn’t reply. Instead, she smacked a hoof to her forehead and groaned.
“Look, Tavi. You worry too much.” Vinyl’s lazy words drifted down the trunk of the tall oak. “It’s always something or other with ya. Yesterday, we were out of soap. The day before that, the milkmare was late. The day before that, the town library blew up. Today, it’s just another silly thing.”
“Yes!” Octavia agreed. “It is a silly thing. You’re the silly thing! I’m locked out of my blooming apartment at nine in the evening, I have a massive audition tomorrow at noon, and my roommate is going to destroy my future just because she won’t come down here and open a single door!”
Vinyl nodded. “I’m glad you agree! See, ya just need to stop worrying so much. Enjoy the stars! Look at the moon. The mooooooooon, Tavi!”
“That’s not what I meant!” the earth pony shouted up at her companion. “I meant that you are the silly thing, and you are the one having and causing the issue here, and you just need to come down so that I can go home and get ready for my huge day tomorrow!”
Slowly, so slowly, Vinyl’s leaned over past her branch to gaze at the ground. She looked down at Octavia and cocked her head to the side. “Really?”
“Yes!” Octavia almost shouted.
“Well, if it’s that important to you…”
Narrowing her eyes, Octavia said, “You’re going to say no again, aren’t y—”
“Nope!” Vinyl pulled back into her comfortable position and giggled hysterically.
“Celestia damn it, Vinyl!”
“Look, if ya want me to come down, ya have to come up here with me first.” Vinyl patted the trunk of the tree. “It’s real easy to climb.”
“Really,” Octavia corrected with a grumble.
“Yeah, yeah, potatoes and pawnshops, same thing. Doesn’t change the fact. Get on up here, Tavi.” She giggled. “Potatoes and pawnshops… it’s funny ‘cuz they aren’t the same thing!”
“You’re not funny, Vinyl,” Octavia hissed.
As she looked down at the earth pony once again Vinyl replied, “That’s because I’m hilarious! Now, are ya coming up here or not?”
Groaning and muttering to herself, Octavia latched onto one of the lower hanging branches. “Fine. But after I get up there, we’re going home.”
“After you get up here and we look at the stars for a while, we will!” Vinyl’s voice carried a pleased chirp. “And the moon! The moooo—”
“Yes, yes, the mooooon…” Octavia interrupted dryly as she pulled herself up the colossal oak. “I heard you the first two times.”
Branch after branch, she climbed. It wasn’t easy, and the fact that the only illumination for her arduous journey came from the dark sky certainly did not help matters. But, after a short while, Octavia finally made it up to a branch right next to Vinyl’s.
“There. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Vinyl asked, her voice humming with hidden laughter.
“Yes, yes. Can we get this stargazing done and get back home, please?”
“Not just stargazing, but also moooooon gazing!” Vinyl guffawed to herself. “It’s really fun to say that word like this. You should try it. Mooooooo...”
“Vinyl.”
“...ooooooo…”
“Really?”
“...ooooooo…”
Octavia sighed and rested her head on her hooves.
“...ooooooon!” Finally finished with another laugh. “Priceless.”
The earth pony looked at her sideways. “Are you quite finished?”
“Meh,” Vinyl meh’d. “I guess.”
The two mares sat down in silence for a while. Vinyl turned away from Octavia to look upward, so her roommate did the same.
Luna’s night was actually quite beautiful this evening. From the subdued twinkling of faraway stars to the grand majesty of the full moon, every part of the sky had its own special brilliance. Distant galaxies swirled, appearing to be just out of reach, as if a pony could rise upward and take one straight out of the great canvas upon which the Princess had painted her masterpiece. Everything was perfect in its own unique way, and—
“I’m scared.”
Octavia turned sharply as she heard the unexpected words. “What was that?”
“Tavi… I’m scared.” Vinyl had turned onto her side, facing away from the other mare.
“I…” She sat up to look over at the hunched unicorn. “Vinyl, what’s wrong.”
“I already told you, I’m freaking scared, okay?” Her friend’s normally cheerful voice cracked, and she shivered in the breeze. “Didn’t want to talk earlier, but I have to.”
“Vinyl…” Octavia moved over toward her best friend. Her mind raced. She’d been fine earlier in the day, then climbed up a tree and sat there for hours… Not exactly normal behavior… Was something really wrong? “You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”
“Yeah, yeah,” she replied quietly. “But it… You know what? Never mind. It’s stupid.” Vinyl rolled over and pushed her glasses all the way onto her face. “C’mon. Let’s go home.”
As Vinyl pulled herself toward the trunk of the tree, Octavia reached out a hoof and stopped her. “No. Something’s up, and we need to talk about it.”
Vinyl froze as soon as her skin made contact with Octavia’s hoof. Her breathing froze, and she turned slowly. “I…”
“Vinyl, you're my friend. Please, talk to me.”
“I…” she stammered as she settled back onto her previous resting place. “I just…”
“Just what?” Octavia asked gently.
“I just don’t want things to change,” Vinyl muttered, almost as if she were talking to herself.
Twice, Octavia blinked. “Umm…”
“You’ve got this audition, see?” she continued, growing slightly louder. “Royal Canterlot Orchestra. And you’re totally gonna get the position. You deserve it. You’re the best. And then, you’ll move on out to Canterlot and you’ll find a new place to live. And…” Her voice rose to the loudest it had been and her pitch quivered. “And then you’ll be gone, and I’ll be alone again.”
Octavia sat in stunned silence, staring at the unicorn who had caused her so much grief over the past few hours. Her carefree laughter had faded completely, and Octavia could just barely make out two tears rolling down one side of her face. “Vinyl…”
“Oh, don’t you ‘Oh, Vinyl,’ me!” she snapped. “I know it’s dumb, and I know I should grow up, and I know that it’s not your fault, and—”
“Vinyl, please just listen!” Octavia said forcefully. “Please!”
The unicorn stopped mid word and turned to face her roommate.
“I’m so sorry, Vinyl.” Her voice was very quiet. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or anything. I never intended to make you feel like this.”
“Of course not!” Vinyl laughed bitterly. “You’re just doing what I would be doing if I could. You’re succeeding. Moving on up. Gettin’ famous, becoming a big shot. I can’t hold that against you. I can’t hold you down. If it’s a choice between me and your dreams, you’ve gotta go with your dreams.”
Octavia winced. “Is that really what you think is happening?”
“I don’t freaking know!” Vinyl replied, throwing her hooves into the air. “All I know is that my best and probably only friend in the entire world is gonna leave tomorrow to go to the city, and everything in my life is going to change. You’ll move on, and I’ll be here alone. Just like before.” She slammed a hoof into the branch beneath her a few times. “So I took the key and tried to keep you outside so maybe you wouldn’t get the job, and maybe you’d stay with me. But I couldn’t do that to you, so I had to tell you, and now you're going to leave, and… and… and…”
Slowly and carefully, Octavia moved from her branch to Vinyl’s. The limb held steady as she put her full weight onto it, and she edged toward the crying mare. “Vinyl, come here.”
The unicorn looked up, and Octavia could see her eyes through the dark lenses of her glasses. She blinked twice and then swiftly moved over to pull Octavia into a tight hug.
The earth pony stroked a hoof through Vinyl’s mane. “You know, you’re my best friend too.”
“Well, of course.”
Octavia bit back a laugh. “There’s the Vinyl I know. Now, tell me something. If you hit the big time, would you just leave and forget all about me? Pretend I didn’t exist? Move to the city and become some posh snob who never had time for the people she cared about?”
“No…”
“Then why,” Octavia muttered into Vinyl’s ear, “do you think that I’d do that to you? Do you have that little faith in me?”
Vinyl didn’t reply.
“Yes, things might be changing soon. Yes, I might get this position. Yes, this could mean that our current arrangements won’t be the same, but do you know what won’t change?” She leaned back and looked Vinyl in the eyes. “You and me. We’re a team. Like jam and toast. Tea and biscuits.”
“Bass and more bass?”
Octavia’s gently laugh floated on the wind. “Yes, I suppose that we can be that, too. Vinyl, you’re my best friend. We’ll make this all work, okay?”
The other mare smiled slightly. “Okay, Tavi. Okay.”
“Now then…” Octavia patted Vinyl on the side of her neck. “Why don’t we look up at the stars for a while, eh? And maybe even at…” Her mouth quirked into a smile. “Maybe even at the mooooooon?”
Vinyl laughed genuinely. “Never do that again, Tavi. It sounds dumb when you do it.”
“Oh, fine!” Octavia exclaimed. “Make fun of my accent, why don’t you!”
“Don’t mind if I do!” Vinyl retorted.
Their laughs flowed down from the tall oak tree and filled the night air all around them. The sky gazed down and saw two friends, together despite changes, risks, and an uncertain future.
And everything was just fine.
Author's Note
Story written as a personal challenge. Conceptualized, written, edited, and posted in eighty-two minutes. I hope you enjoy.
Also, I totally took the "meh" line from Swan Song. Go give her some love.
