Compersion

Chapters

1. Blue Is the New Purple
2. Neapolitan Ice Cream (with Pickles)
3. Three Strikes
4. The Final Date
5. Reproach
6. Remnants
7. Restitution
Epilogue. The USS Buffiolazura

1. Blue Is the New Purple

Music. All around her was the sound of music and the sensation of a light breeze flowing through her fur. A pony like Buffy only slowed down enough to experience such still and calm moments rarely, but there was something about the way that Viola played that was almost hypnotizing; she couldn't help but stop and listen.

It was Viola's music that first drew her to her. That day, several months ago, she looked so calm and serene, but her music was full of emotion, each note dripping with anger and sorrow. And by that music, Buffy couldn't help but ask what it was that made Viola play such an angry song. That question turned out to be the beginning of their relationship: a long series of musical communications met by enthusiastic verbal communications between the two of them.

This one was a quite a bit happier but still just as beautiful. Viola's song came to an end, and as the last notes were played, Buffy opened her eyes blearily, slowly coming out of her trance. But once she was awake, she turned her head to Viola with a mischievous smile on her face before springing up from her seat and bounding at her marefriend, tackling her to the ground.

"Viola that was amazing you're so talented and your songs are great and—"

"Buffy!" Viola cut her off with a shout as she wriggled out of Buffy's grasp. "What have I told you about tackling me after I finish playing?" she grumbled while brushing herself off.

"Ummm, don't do it?"

"Because . . . ?"

"Because I could damage one of your instruments?"

"Exactly," Viola said with finality, an unimpressed look on her face.

Buffy pulled her ears back flat against her head, lowering herself a bit and trying to pout. "I'm sorry, Viola?" she said quietly as she dropped her pout and the corners of her lips peeked upwards, the small smile betraying the fact that she wasn't really sorry at all. The opportunity to spring a hug on her partner was just too good to pass up, even if Viola did get annoyed about it every so often.

Viola rolled her eyes and placed a foreleg around her marefriend, pulling her in for a hug, a flat look on her face. Buffy nevertheless gladly accepted the invitation, happily snuggling into Viola's soft fur and nuzzling into her chest and neck. They said nothing. Buffy, on her part, felt more than content to sit in silence as long as she was cuddling with Viola.

She felt so lucky to have Viola come all the way from Canterlot to visit her, so she couldn't help but offer to share her apartment with her while she was here. Plus, it meant that she could spend all day cuddling and lavishing affection on Viola in as many ways as she could think of! And maybe get her to grin once or twice. That mare just didn't know how to smile, sometimes!

The silence persisted for several minutes, only broken when Viola said, "Do you have any plans for tonight?"

Buffy picked her head up off Viola's chest and looked at her. "Well, I think we'd get awfully stiff sitting here all night! I don't have any plans, though." Buffy frowned and looked off to the side. "I mean, I thought I might be going out with this mare I met, but she canceled earlier today. Honestly, I think she's kind of a flake. She's cool and all, but it's annoying that she's always bailing on me like this."

"That does sound irritating. I'm sorry, Buffy," Viola offered.

Buffy shrugged in response. "It's okay. Just part of the perils of being polyamorous, I guess. More opportunities for dates means more opportunities for getting stood up."

Viola simply nodded to that, but Buffy smiled and nuzzled into her fur again regardless. Even a lack of response was better than some other responses she got. She had known ponies in the past who weren't very nice about her being polyamorous—or downright mean about it, even. But Viola . . .

"If we're really going to try this whole dating thing, there's something I have to tell you, Viola.

"What is it, Buffy?

Buffy took a deep breath. Just because she had done it several times didn't make it any easier. "I'm polyamorous, which I know is probably not a word that you've heard before. It means I'm open to having more than one romantic relationship at a time. I know that sounds strange, and you've probably never had anypony you were interested in say something like that to you before, but it's a really important part of who I am. I just want you to know because I never want you to think that I would want to go behind your back and cheat on you or something! And I don't want you to think that you have to only ever date me while I go off dating whoever I want either. I want you to pursue whatever will make you happy, too!" Buffy finished her speech and nervously shuffled her hooves as she waited to see how Viola would react to her admission.

Of all the ponies Buffy had explained her relationship orientation to, Viola was by far the most understated in her response—she just said, "I don't think a little polyamory would stop me from loving you," and that was that! There was something so very sweet about it. She didn't need to ask a million questions and turn the conversation into an interrogation; she didn't need to examine and dissect it; she just accepted and rolled with it like she did with every piece of who Buffy was. It made her so happy that she could just cuddle her sweet and wonderful marefriend to bits. Of course, that would probably lead to a "Buffy stop that right now" sort of admonishment, so she settled for a gentle squeeze instead.

"Well, since I was planning on going out anyway, why don't we do that?" Buffy suggested. "I'm not sure where we could go, but I wouldn't mind just wandering for a while. There's always something new to do in Baltimare!"

"A walk sounds nice," Viola agreed, though she sounded no more eager than she did moments before.

With that, the two picked themselves up off the floor and left the apartment. Buffy took the lead, but not more than half a block down the road, she saw something she had to comment on.

"You know, I think that yarn store is new; at least, I don't remember seeing it before," Buffy said, pointing out a window display showing a dizzying array of colors and patterns. "I guess I could've just not noticed it. I mean I don't knit or anything. I tried it once, but I just ended up with a scarf full of holes!"

A mere few steps later, Buffy made another tangent to point something else out. "Ooh, those trees over there are in bloom now! Aren't they pretty? Pink is my favorite color. I wonder what kind of tree that is."

This was how their walks nearly always went, with Buffy stopping every twelve seconds or so to point out—that cloud looks like a train!—something or draw attention to whatever else she saw that caught her attention. Viola trailed behind, only chiming in on occasion. There was an energy that wanted Buffy to scamper on ahead and take in every sight she could, but she always managed to stick by Viola.

"Ooooh, do you smell that, Viola? I wonder where it's coming from, but whatever it is, it smells amazing! Do you think—" Buffy stopped mid-sentence when she spotted a familiar figure. Without warning, she rushed ahead, stood up on her hind legs, and waved her forelegs over her head. "Viridian! Viridian, over here!" she shouted at the green-maned earth pony in the distance.

Viridian perked her ears up and trotted over once she saw Buffy. Buffy met Viridian halfway and threw her forelegs around her in a hug.

"Viridian! It's so nice to see you! How've you been?" Buffy greeted. "I didn't expect to see you tonight! You said you'd be spending tonight in a theater somewhere watching Cervine Squad again."

"Buffy . . . tight!" was all Viridian managed to say before Buffy released her crushing hug and had her breathing a sigh of relief. "Actually I ended up catching an earlier showing so a friend could come with me. It was even better the second time. You and I should totally go see it together soon!"

"You know I've been dying to see this for months now, and of course I want to go with you!" Buffy said, hopping up and down. She stopped suddenly. "But you just saw it! You sure you want to go for round three with the same movie?"

"What can I say? I guess I'm pretty fawned of it," Viridian replied, smirking and waggling her eyebrows.

"Oooh! I see what you did there!" Buffy exclaimed before giggling. She looked behind her just in time to see Viola catch up and roll her eyes, which, to her, just made the pun that much more hilarious. But behind her still was a trotting blue mare moving towards them, one she didn't immediately recognize. Even from a distance, she could see the softness in her mane and tail and their fluffiness and the piercing gold light that reflected off her irises that was the same color as the sun but seemed bright and sunny in its own right and oh dear she was getting distracted again—

"Viridian, you are such a dork!" the blue mare said in a strong and confident voice, situating herself next to Viridian. "Seriously, if I had a buck for every bad pun you make—"

"You'd be able to film your own Cervine Squad sequel?" Viridian shot back, causing them both to crack up. Buffy laughed at the jab too, though she kept her eyes trained on this interesting and rather cute new arrival.

"Oh yeah, girls, this is Azura Peavielle," Viridian announced. "She just moved in here a couple days ago. Azura, Buffy and Viola, two friends of mine. We go way—whoa!"

Without bothering to check with her brain first, Buffy's legs propelled her towards Azura before Viridian was even finished. "Hi there! I don’t think we've met! I'm Buffy! I mean maybe you know that and Viridian already told you so of course you know that but I'm Buffy!"

And apparently her mouth wasn't checking in with her brain anymore either. She shrunk back a little in embarrassment. There was about a bajillion different ways that could have gone better.

Azura laughed. "Viridian did say something about a cute chatterbox of a mare she hangs out with. I'm guessing that would be you?"

Oh gosh, she thinks I'm cute.

"That, that does sound like me, yeah," Buffy said as she chuckled nervously.

Azura laughed again. "Thought so!"

"Azura, you should come with us!" Viridian chimed in. "I think you and Buffy here would get along pretty well, and then I'd have a whole group to go with! Oh, and if Viola wants to come too, all the better!" she added, looking over to her.

"Hey, I'm always down for a movie!" Azura said in that commanding, cool, announcer voice of hers. "Y'know, as long as it's another early showing. I have another gig tomorrow night and I can't keep the crowd waiting."

"A gig?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, it's a little night job of mine I do occasionally," Azura said while waving a hoof in a circle. "When I'm not hosting my radio show, at least."

Buffy gasped. "That is so cool!" She started to rapid-fire questions. "What's the job? What show do you host? Where can I listen to it? What kind of ponies—"

"Woah, settle down there, cutie, I can barely understand you!" Azura interjected, although while still wearing a good-natured smile. "I've actually gotta go live pretty soon, so I'll answer everything you've got when we go for the movie, alright?"

"Oh, okay!" Buffy was simultaneously disappointed that she wouldn't be able to talk with this cute, commanding, and now interesting mare any longer—she called me cutie!—and excited that she had the promise of a future meeting (and possibly more!). Remembering that there was yet still one mare who hadn't spoken at all through their entire exchange, Buffy turned back to Viola. "You wanna come, Vi? I'm sure it'll be fun!"

Viola cocked her head but didn't smile or frown. "Lunch sounds just fine, and I suppose the movie will be interesting enough."

"Yay!" Buffy exclaimed as she launched towards her marefriend and gave her another hug. She raised her head and looked to the others. "Then we'll see you tomorrow?"

"Can't wait!" Viridian called in response before walking away.

"See you, Buffy," Azura said, waving before departing. Buffy took just a second or two to once again admire Azura's long fluffy tail (and if anypony asked, that was all she was admiring) before separating from Viola.

"Isn't this great, Vi?" she said. "Tomorrow's going to be so fun!"

"If you say so, Buffy," Viola answered. She might have sounded bored to the average pony, but Buffy knew Viola for long enough to know that she just wasn't the kind of pony who got very excited or depressed over much of anything. She was just super sweet in her own ways.

"What do you think of Azura?" Buffy asked excitedly and much more animatedly than her companion.

". . . Fine?" Viola said, raising one eyebrow a little bit. "You realize that I didn't talk with her at all, right? That was all you."

"Oh, really?" Buffy barely noticed that Viola didn't talk. Even at the best of times, she didn't really talk much. "I mean, I think she seems cool. And she's cute too!" A silly smile grew on her face as she thought back Azura. Fierce but fluffy!

Viola raised her eyebrow more. "Is that so?"

"Uh-huh." Buffy nodded enthusiastically. "So you don't mind if I hang out with her a little more and try and get to know her, do you?"

At that, Viola stopped and looked straight at Buffy, wearing a look she could only describe as skeptical. "You know that you don't ask for my permission for anything, right?"

Buffy stared blankly at Viola. It wasn't a "yes" or a "no," really, and she didn't know if it was a "yes" or a "no" or even a different answer entirely. She could be very confusing at times. She stuck her tongue out of her mouth and squinted a little. "Um, all of the above?"

"Snnrk!"

Buffy's ears perked at that. It sounded like a sneeze, but she knew that sound. Viola didn't sneeze; she cracked! She had her head off to the side and was covering her face with a hoof, but Buffy knew she was laughing. "Goodness, Buffy, do you know how adorable you look when you do that?" she said in a voice strangled with suppressed mirth.

After a few seconds, Viola uncovered her face. She wasn't laughing anymore, but Buffy spied a small smile on her mouth. Those were so rare on her that even the smallest ones became all the more wonderful and lovely because of it. And ponies wondered why Buffy loved Viola so much when she seemed so stoic; this was why!

"Fine, Buffy. Yes, you have worthless permission." Viola dropped her smile and frowned a moment later. "And I see that look on your face. No, you do not have permission to tackle me, but you aren't going to listen, are you?"

Buffy flashed a wide, toothy smile and launched herself at her wonderful marefriend. "Nope!"

2. Neapolitan Ice Cream (with Pickles)

Perhaps it would be better played marcato? There would be more leeway for expressivity.

Viola scribbled a few notes on her score with a pencil before backing away from the stand and playing the section again. She loosened her tempo, slowing down and swelling in volume as she progressed to the more dramatic movements of the song and speeding up again as she left them.

No no no, the second movement is adagio for a reason, and I can't expect everypony to match pace exactly. A fermata perhaps?

A few more scribbles and a few erasures later, Viola was back to playing the same section again, slightly modified. Her ears were filled with the dulcet treble tones of her violin as she played. And when she finished, her ears detected the decidedly less musical sound of a door opening. Viola put down her violin and turned to greet her visitor.

"Back so soon?" Viola said levelly, her right brow cocked ever-so-slightly higher than the other.

Buffy dropped her saddlebags unceremoniously onto the floor once she made it inside. She kicked the front door closed with a hind hoof. "Yeah, just a little," she said. "He had to leave early, but we had a great time. He's really fun to talk to, and he knows a lot about all kinds of stuff, like air-ee—air-in—aeronautics? Is that how you say it?" Buffy stuck her tongue out. "That, and carpentry, and hoofball." She leaned in closer to Viola and whispered, "A lot of hoofball."

Viola rolled her eyes and gave Buffy a little shove, distancing themselves again. "Do you see this working out any better than the last one?" she asked. It was an odd little ritual Buffy had, and part of her polyamorous nature. Even though she was already going steady with herself, she went out with other ponies semi-frequently, either in an attempt to make new friends or new "partners to bring in," as she called it. Viola didn't do it herself; she just let Buffy have her little fun.

Buffy stuck her tongue out again, looking up and off to the side. "Ehh, maybe. I mean, he's still fun to talk to, but he just likes hoofball so much. He keeps talking about rules and teams and scandals, and I have to pretend I'm interested." She shrugged. "I don't know anything about hoofball."

She knew what that reaction meant. An invite here, a dinner there, maybe a weekend trip if they were at it for a few weeks. The ponies changed, but even so, their relationship stayed the same. Polyamorous she was, but Viola wondered whether she would ever find somepony else interesting enough to partner with for more than a week or two.

Buffy continued. "But when he gets off hoofball, then he's fun again. And he's really good at folding these awesome paper airplanes, if you'd believe it." She went back to her saddlebags and flipped them open, retrieving a folded piece of paper from a pocket and tossing it into the air. Viola tracked the aircraft as it caught a breeze from an open window. Instead of swerving, it gained altitude and seemed to accelerate, ending its flight perched on a hanging ceiling lamp on the opposite side of the room.

Viola turned back around to Buffy. She was looking at the lamp, hooves over her mouth. She slowly raised a hoof to point at it. "Oops. Can you get that?"

Viola rolled her eyes again but acquiesced. "Only you," she grumbled. She opened her wings to take to the air and retrieve the rogue aircraft. And when she returned to the ground, she found Buffy had returned to her saddlebags and apparently shoveled out its contents, a half-dozen assorted paper airplanes of different shapes now scattered on the ground.

As she dug through her bag, a few more planes came flying—some of them literally—out. "So yeah, he's pretty fun to spend time with," Buffy said, voice slightly muffled. "I don't know if we—watch your head—we could be partners, but he's pretty special. A new friend, definitely."

Viola looked up just in time to get out of the way of a falling needle-nosed paper bomber. Its nose crumpled as it crashed into the ground.

Apparently finished retrieving her new toys, Buffy took her head out of her bags and closed them up. She retrieved all the paper airplanes (all the ones she could reach, at least) and arranged them side-by-side in a little display. She looked back to Viola, head cocked a little, a little smile on her face. "See, I don't think he's as special as you."

Despite herself, Viola couldn't stop a snort of mirth from escaping her muzzle or a tiny smile from taking hold of her face and curling up the corners of her lips. She barely had time to take another breath before she found herself nearly choked by a pair of pink fores tight around her barrel.

"Oh my gosh, Vi! You look so cute when you laugh like that! You need to do it more often!" Buffy gushed, a gigantic toothy smile on her face. "You're so tough and cool all the time, but you're super nice and pretty when you smile!" She took a hoof and pried open Viola's mouth a little. "Lemme see some teeth!"

"Buffy! Viola hissed as she turned her head away and clambered out from under Buffy's belly. "Have I told you before not to hug me like that?" She got to her hooves and brushed herself of dust, a small frown now firmly on her face.

Buffy shuffled from hoof to hoof, wearing a not-well-suppressed smile, her face looking like that of a foal up to mischief and with no intention of listening to her parents. "Sorry?" she said in a clearly-not-sorry voice.

Viola tried very hard to keep frowning. But Buffy behaved like a cute and silly foal much of the time, and looking like a silly foal just made her cuter. Buffy always had a way to make her laugh, and she both hated and loved her for it. "Just don't do it again," she said, eyes averted, though the gravitas in her words was betrayed by the criminal smile again coloring her face.

Buffy's smile turned into a toothy grin again, and her hooves were squishing her cheeks. Just as Viola was sure she'd be attacked again, she was saved by the doorbell. Her smile vanished, and Buffy's countenance turned curious. Buffy turned to answer the door.

"Oh, Azura! I didn't know you'd be visiting! Come inside!" Buffy said, admitting the marginally familiar mare.

"Buffy, it's awesome to see you! Yeah, I just had some free time after work, and I decided I'd pop by for a visit."

"Sure, sure! I'm always happy to have you around. How's the radio doing?"

"Oh, y'know, the usual. Hosting a talk show isn't the hardest thing, though I find it a little funny that I have an intern already. I mean, I haven't been hosting here for that long yet, but I'm still showing other ponies the ropes of oratory."

"That is so awesome; you should be really proud! I could never . . ."

After a few exchanges, it was clear their discourse didn't include her, so Viola found herself quickly tuning out the conversation. It did, in fact, feel like a harkening back to the movie she went to with Buffy, Azura, and Viridian. It was a private showing, but she couldn't say what the film was about; Buffy and Azura's conversation drowned it all out. Yet their conversation moved so fast that she didn't know what they were talking about on the side, either.

It was a bit odd to see Azura at Buffy's apartment, though; they had only met about a week ago, after all. Silly as Buffy was, she didn't seem the type to flaunt about her address to everypony she met.

It was clear that she'd find no more time to practice in the near future, though, so Viola busied herself with putting her violin back in its case and folding up her music stand. She'd normally also prepare a pot of tea for the three of them, but of course, tea was not exactly the first beverage Buffy had chosen to stock her apartment with. Soda and fruit juice were . . . not ideal to hold conversation over.

"That's weird. Every time I listen to your show, you're always so talkative and fun and prepared with all these ponies you interview."

"Thanks, Buffy! But I mean, it gets a little awkward when you've got this pony you're interviewing, he talks about the Baltimare Botanical Gardens like he owns the place, and you need to nod and say 'uh huh' like you know whatever the heck he's talking about."

"No way! You've never been to the Gardens before?"

"No, not at all. I just got here, remember?"

"Oh, that's it then, we're going to the Gardens right now! They're not closed yet, but we need to hurry! Actually, come to think of it, I don't think Viola's been to the Gardens, either."

For the first time since they'd started their conversation, Buffy took her eyes off Azura and looked back to Viola. Her ears perked up. "Hey, Vi, we're going to the Botanical Gardens. You wanna tag along?"

Viola blinked a few times. It was, again, odd that she was the one being asked to "tag along," when traditionally, it'd be the other way around. Even so, she had truthfully never been to the Gardens before and had been meaning to go eventually. "Sure," she said levelly.

Buffy pumped a hoof into the air. "Triple date!"

"And then he just grabbed the mic and got so close to it, he started peaking! Makes me wonder whether he's actually hosted a talk show before, 'cause that's not how you use a microphone, am I right?"

"Wait, that's not how you use a microphone? All those rock bands use their microphones like that."

"No, it's not! I mean, it works with mics on stage, but not in a studio! A pony's voice gets all deep and distorted, and it's a pain to fix. Even worse if we're broadcasting live! It's because we were that I didn't push him back and tell him to keep his distance. Seriously, some ponies . . ."

Viola walked with Buffy and Azura through Baltimare's Botanical Gardens, though it was hard to tell whether they were really appreciating the considerable scenery. Whatever they were talking about, it was probably not about the Gardens.

She sighed. There was quite a lot that they were missing if that was the case. Terraces were filled with more colors than she thought possible, and walkways were nearly invaded by curious trees and bushes spreading their branches wherever they could. Flowers released their pungent aromas and combined with those of the trees and other flowers to create a near-intoxicating bouquet. It seemed to simultaneously lull her to sleep and fill her with energy.

The Botanical Gardens seemed like nature's sanctuary in a universe of concrete and asphalt. If she lived here long-term, Viola would have liked to spend some time here in a secluded corner, practicing, only the sounds of her violin, the rustling leaves, and the chirping birds to demand her attention. And that was not even mentioning that the scenery itself and its sheer variety could be a tremendous source of inspiration.

This was when Viola leaned against her dear Buffy and sighed again. And this was when she would have liked nothing more than to rest on a bench with no one else, doing nothing else but taking in nature's greatest glories.

"Do you have a thing for cream cheese or something?"

"Of course I don't have a thing for it, I just like it a lot! You can never have too much cream cheese on a bagel!

Of course, it was a bit more difficult to do that when Buffy had her own friend to chat with. Truly, Azura was certainly not unpleasant company, but she did wish at times that she didn't command so much of her Buffy's attention during a time which would otherwise be quite romantic. There was a whole world of sights and sounds that Buffy seemed to be missing just because there was a friend around to occupy her attention.

"So, I guess Viola is a good friend of yours, huh?"

"Yeah, really good! We're partners!" Buffy reached a hoof around Viola's forebarrel without warning and gave her a squeeze. She grunted.

"Partners? You mean, like, tennis partners or something?"

"No, silly! Romantic partners!"

"No way. You two, together?"

Finally, Viola heard something consequential to comment on. But just as she was about to say something concerning their romantic status, she was cut off by a pair of lips against her mouth. And just as she realized what Buffy was doing, Viola grunted loudly and slipped out from under her hoof, retreating away a few steps. "I thought I told you not to do that, either," she groused.

Buffy made no attempt to close the gap, but once again, she wore that same sorry-not-sorry expression. Viola rolled her eyes.

"Geez, alright, I get it. You two are together," Azura said, fanning the air with a hoof. "Still, I guess I didn't expect it, is all. You two are just so different that I don't see how you two can get along. Buffy's real interesting and always has something to talk about, but . . . I don't know, Viola, you're just so dang quiet." She looked over to said mare.

Viola avoided making eye contact and bit her lip. She'd heard that before, though perhaps not quite as frankly as Azura put it. But however it was said, it never made her any more talkative.

"Eh . . ." Buffy waves her hoof in a circle. "We find our ways. Vi is so sweet once you get to know her, and she's just so good at playing the violin and the cello and just making music. She talks through gestures. And she's an awesome singer, too."

Viola's ears perked up. She had a suspicion where this conversation was headed, and she didn't like it. "Buffy . . ." she warned.

"I mean, I don't know why she gets all cagey whenever I say that, 'cause she's really good. She could seriously melt your heart just by singing 'Happy Birthday.'"

"Buffy!"

"She plays in string quartets, but she just never sings in them, even though I've asked her so many times. Vi could be as big as the Countess if she just went at it." Buffy turned to Viola. "Really, we should go out to a karaoke—"

Buffy words were arrested by a flying blur of wings and fur, and both of them ended up on the ground. Viola's cheeks, normally a demure purple, were now a fiery pink. "Goodness, Buffy, do you honestly feel the need to just . . ." She couldn't finish the sentence.

Despite having just been tackled, Buffy was giggling, a hoof on her mouth, cheeks lightly colored. And despite Viola's embarrassment, she couldn't stay angry at a face like that. She found her desire to chastise her marefriend and cuff her on the shoulder quickly drowning in a sea of contagious laughter. Before long, she was chuckling as well.

Once her giggles were calmed, Buffy, still on the ground, turned her head to look at Azura, smiling. She pointed at Viola. "See? Sweet."

Quickly, Viola clambered off her marefriend, allowing her to get up. She brushed the dirt off her fur and tried to wipe her smile off her face. "Every time . . ." Buffy was something of a lovable, inappropriate fool, but she also had the infuriating ability of drawing the most inappropriate behavior out of herself. And Buffy asked why she wouldn't bring her to formal functions.

"Mhm, I don't know if you guys are sweet or just plain weird," Azura said, shaking her head.

Buffy, having since recovered, made her way back to Viola's side. She was still smiling. "Viola isn't a conversation starter or anything, but she's sweet and kind and talented and . . ." Buffy paused. She reached a hoof up and ruffled Viola's mane, disheveling it and making it appear as though she just woke up. "Cute!" Buffy finished in a high squeak, hooves at her cheeks.

Viola looked up at her hair and tried to fix it to where it was before. She tried not to look back at Buffy, lest she start laughing again. The fool.

"Weird. Definitely weird."

Buffy mock-pouted. "Aww, but everypony's a little bit weird." Faster than Viola could react, Buffy clambered on to her back and rested her chin on her head. "Except Viola. Which makes her weird!"

The fool! "Oh, you little—"

Just as Viola was about to buck her marefriend off and ruffle her mane in revenge, she lost the chance as Buffy scampered off and away to get closer to Azura and ruffled her mane instead. Buffy coughed. "Or we could also be weird together? I mean, you're pretty cute, too." In contrast to earlier, her smile was quite a bit more restrained and modest, and she shuffled from side to side.

Azura was caught off-guard by the sudden onslaught on her mane and Buffy's oddly-worded request, but she recovered quickly with a smirk. She raised her chin and bared her neck. "Heh, you really think so? I mean, you're a pretty mean looker too. Haven't really been on the dating scene for a while now, but that doesn't mean I don't have a hankering to restart."

Viola, despite having just recovered from the surprise ponyride, froze and took interest. This was no alien scene; she had been witness to a few of these interactions as well. Buffy expressed her interest in some other pony, and that pony reciprocated the interest. Then the dating began, only to end a week or two later. And here was Azura, falling into the same trend: surely just another suitor.

She rubbed at her breastbone.

Buffy lifted a forehoof and wrapped it around Azura's neck, pulling her closer. "Then this is our first date!"

"Hey, I guess it is! Guess Viola ought to watch out, then, 'cause there's only one of you to go around."

"Oh, Azura, you're so silly." Stopping and using Azura as support, Buffy lifted her other foreleg and reached to capture Viola, eliciting from her a startled "Uwah!" With no more forehooves on the ground, Buffy was dependent on her two hug-mates to keep her standing. She pointed her face to the sky and declared jovially, "There's plenty of love for everypony!"

"Um . . ." Azura looked to her companions. Viola was looking back, her face expressionless. Gesturing to ask a question, Azura pointed her chin towards the pony between them and raised an eyebrow.

It was the same lecture she'd been given when she and Buffy first decided to pursue romance, and it was the same lecture Buffy gave to every suitor who wanted to court her. She could recite it by heart. But Viola averted her eyes, refusing to answer. Certainly, everypony deserved a chance, and Buffy had made it very clear to her that their relationship was, as of yet, not closed. At the same time, Viola wasn't going to be the pony to hold the door open.

Buffy, finally noticing the long silence, looked back down and saw the perplexed look Azura was giving her. "Oh, sorry!" She took her hooves off her companions and returned to all fours. "What I mean is, I'm polyamorous. Like, I feel like having just one romantic partner is just so . . . limiting. So I don't limit myself, y'know?"

"Really?" Azura kept her eyebrow raised but drew a little closer. "That's a little strange, isn't it?"

The smile which seemed so permanent on Buffy's face dropped for just a moment. "Strange isn't how I'd put it . . ." But just a moment, and it was back in force the next. "It just makes more sense to me, I guess. It'd be like if somepony said I had to choose between pickles and ice cream, and I could only eat one or the other. There's no reason why I can't have pickles and ice cream on the same day, or in the same meal, or just in one big bowl if I really want to!"

"Pickles?"

"Pickles," Viola responded grimly in a low voice. She had never bought so many jars of the nasty green things before. Half sour, not dill, not sweet! was becoming a catchphrase of sorts for her.

"So yeah, I'm dating Vi, and I wanna date you, but I'm not going to pick one of you over the other. And it's totally okay if the two of you wanna date other ponies, too. Or maybe even each other! So, if you're okay with this, we can give this a try?" Buffy sat in front of Azura and gave her that big-eyed, hopeful smile that Viola had seen too many times before. Whenever Buffy asked her for anything.

And like so many ponies before her (including herself), Azura fell like ninepins. "Aww, sure thing, sweetie!"

"Wee!" Buffy jumped up and gave Azura a massive hug, standing on two legs and forcing Azura to the same.

Viola looked on and smiled at their machinations, though she wasn't sure if she was doing so out of social necessity or true compersive joy. She was always happy when Buffy found another friend to share her silly tendencies with, and the occasional romantic dabble wasn't anything new either. Azura was definitely a friend of Buffy's—quite a fast one, in fact—and Buffy had made it very clear that there should be no holds on more relationships.

So she smiled and looked on.

Meanwhile, beyond conscious control, her left forehoof rubbed at the scruff on her chest.

3. Three Strikes

"Honey, I'm home!" Buffy called out as she barged in through the front door of her apartment.

"Honey?" Viola asked, a brow raised, turning her eyes from her task to see her.

Buffy stalked closer, clearly looking to give her a hug. "Yeah, because you're just so sweet and fun and—kniiife!" Until she saw the tool in Viola's upstage hoof and recoiled, squealed, and fell over backwards, crashing onto the floor.

Viola glanced at the knife in her hoof and shook her head, smiling to herself at Buffy's shenanigans. She put it flat on her chopping board before helping Buffy back up. "I'm dicing beets, Buffy; I'm not conspiring to stab you."

And just like that, Buffy was on her hindlegs and right beside Viola, her hooves on the countertop. "Are you cooking?"

Viola picked up her knife and resumed chopping. "Yes, dinner for the two of us. It's been long enough since you've had a home-cooked meal, hasn't it?"

An excited gasp. "Awww, that's so nice of you, Vi!" She gave Viola a kiss on her cheek, enough to cause her to blush. But then came a much more despondent "Awww . . ."

Viola looked to Buffy. She was looking down with a depressed pout on her face and traced circles on the countertop with her hooves. She stopped chopping again. "Something the matter?" she asked.

"Well, I thought the three of us could go out for dinner today."

"Three?"

"Yeah: you, me, and Azzy."

Azzy? Azura, she must have been referring to.

"I promised that I'd go get her and we'd get something to eat today." Suddenly, she brightened. "Oh, oh!" Buffy interjected. "Do you think you could make enough for all of us? That way, we can still have dinner at home and Azzy can too and all of us can be together!"

Viola paused. She glanced at the food cooking in the oven. She had only planned for two, and she really only wanted it to be two. A quiet, romantic dinner out on the patio as they watched the sun set and cast its long, warm rays across the city. Contrary to what she first thought, Buffy was entirely capable of being tender and romantic; she just needed the right atmosphere, one free of distractions. One like she was planning tonight. Inviting Azura was a sure way to obliterate that atmosphere and replace it with one of . . . talking, if past interactions were anything to go by.

Still, Buffy had asked, and it'd be rude to shoo Azura away at this point. And there was always the possibility that Azura's company could be pleasant.

Viola turned her eyes back to her cutting board and picked her knife up again. "I'll need another half-hour."

Another excited gasp as she moved in for another hug. "Oh, Vi, thanks so—kniiife!" And another slam as she staggered back and crashed into the ground behind her again. Despite the new and unfavorable development in dinner guests, Viola giggled. Even when she wasn't trying, she managed to take a laugh or two from her. At the very least, she was consistent.

This time, Buffy helped herself off the floor and made her way to the front door, but not before helping herself to a kiss on Viola's lips. "You're the best, Vi! I'll go get her!" she said.

Viola blushed again, and she brought her knife away from the beets to shake it at Buffy instead in a tongue-in-cheek threat. "See you soon."

"Oooh, that smells delicious, Vi!"

"Yeah, Buffy wasn't lying when she said you were a good cook. What're you making?"

Viola was stooping on all fours, scrutinizing the items in the oven. "Stuffed eggplant," she said, not taking her eyes away. A few portions and sides were already out of the oven and sitting under a hot lamp, but it wasn't the size of the oven or poor timing that forced her to cook the food in rounds. Rather, it was the unexpected guest.

Buffy and Azura were sitting at the table, three settings laid down, one unoccupied. They were munching on a plate of kale chips she had prepared and put there earlier.

"Sounds cool," Azura talked. "Never had it myself, but it sure smells nice. You ever had it, Buffy?"

"Not yet, I haven't. But Vi is so nice to make it for us, isn't she? I just don't know why she says I don't know how to cook."

"It's because you can't, Buffy," Viola said while turning off the oven and retrieving a pair of oven mitts. "At least not without me supervising and making sure you don't burn your place down." The smell of roasted eggplant and various spices grew stronger as she opened the oven and retrieved the baking tray.

"Can too-ooooh!" Buffy's exclamation turned into a different one as Viola brought all of the freshly-prepared food into view. Hollowed-out eggplant halves served as the vessels for mushrooms, zucchini, tomatoes, cheese, and of course, some half sour pickles. On the side, she brought diced beets dressed in a vinaigrette and garnished with candied orange peel. Along too came a salad of lettuce, eggplant, beet, tomato, and any other leftover vegetables she had (because she'd be dreaming if she expected Buffy to use any of the leftovers productively). Not the most extravagant meal she could have made, but certainly a respectable one.

Buffy wasted no time in scooping one of the stuffed eggplants off the baking tray with her hooves and depositing it on her plate. "Oh, it's sooo good!" she said as she took a large bite out of the side of the vessel as one would a hayburger. Naturally, she also spoke with her mouth full.

Viola was considerably more restrained in her dining, gripping her utensils with a wingtip. She used a knife to cut her food into more manageable pieces. (And as for why she was suppressing a smile while doing it, she could still hear Buffy squealing "kniiife!" in her ears.)

Azura decided to eat as earth ponies normally did and replicated Buffy in her eschewment of utensils. When she took her first bite, she rolled it around in her mouth for a moment before swallowing and saying, "Yeah, it's pretty good. Maybe it could use a little pepper, though." She reached for the pepper pot and ground a few motes on the top.

Viola's ear twitched, but she otherwise didn't respond. There was always at least one critic, wasn't there?

"So, Azzy," Buffy said between bites and occasionally during bites. "Do you cook at all?"

Azura twirled her hoof around in a circle. "Ehh, here and there. Shows can go late, and when that happens, I just eat out. I can make mean grilled pesto tomato and asparagus, though."

"Oh, I love grilled stuff! It's just too bad that I don't have any room for one. And I, well, don't know how to use one."

About time that you admitted that you can't cook, Viola thought to herself.

"Really! Well, you should come over to my place some time, and I'll see if I can whip something up. Oh, and show you my sound system, 'cause gosh, you have never seen a sound system 'till you've seen mine."

"That sounds cool, and of course I'd like to visit sometime! Why do you need a sound system, though?"

"Are you crazy? With all the stuff I do with music and radio and level balancing, of course I need a good sound system. It means I can make good mixes without blowing anyone's ears off. And it means I can throw house parties that'd rock the block."

And off they went about somesuch or other. It was happening all too often at this point. As expected, they were talking. Viola couldn't pay much attention to matters of house parties or sound systems, but Buffy seemed to be interested in it. Naturally, of course she was free to talk to whomever she chose. But if it was up to her, she would have spent their time enjoying the simple pleasure of company, not talking at all.

She was never particularly keen on having Azura over for dinner, but here was the point Viola was particularly regretting her decision to have her over.

"Oh yeah, and the recording studio. Got an even bigger system. Not that you ever would, but you could probably host a rave with it."

"Oh, that sounds like a fun time!"

"Sure does, right? Here, I'll give you a guest ID, and you can use it to card in to the place I work," Azura said as she slid a card over the dining table. "You can visit me anytime you want, so long as you don't barge into my office when I'm live."

"Oh, you will? That's so nice of you, Azzy!" And as if to punctuate the point, Buffy turned Azura's head and delivered a quick kiss right to her lips.

Viola almost spit out her food.

"Ah, yeah, don't mention it," Azura said, touching her lips where Buffy kissed her and blushing at the same time. The ruddy pink on her cheek stood out in sharp relief against the blue of her coat.

Viola managed to swallow her food and mitigate her response to a mere cough, but that didn't mitigate the shock she felt inside. Of course, it was nothing Buffy was not allowed to do, given their situation and relationship arrangement, but . . . it was a kiss. On the lips. She put a hoof to her own. Even among the suitors Buffy had had before, perhaps she'd give them a chaste peck on the cheek or two, but never to the lips. It was a gesture she'd long seen as something special Buffy reserved for her.

And now, Azura had it too.

"Excuse me," Viola said quickly, standing from the table. "I need some air."

"Um, you okay, Vi?" Buffy asked, pausing in her ravenous food-chewing.

"I'm fine," she said as she went to Buffy and gave her an unsolicited kiss on the lips, as if to steal back what Azura just took from her. She strode quickly to the front door and pushed her way through. And finally distanced from the two, she had the space to think.

She knew that Buffy would tell her that there was no kiss to steal back, that there was nothing that could be stolen from her. That was what polyamory was, as Buffy impressed on her and others so many times. But in her heart, she could only feel that emotional connection she had with her Buffy for so long, now fraying and shared with somepony else. Where else was her time going if not to Azura instead of her?

And she never asked Azura to come in. Despite everything Buffy would say, here she was, musing about all those things a mare would wonder about if she were just rejected by her beloved.

Viola watched the sun set and cast its long, warm rays across the city in front of her.

Alone.

It was a request she had received many times before: to play for some high-class social gathering to provide some "ambiance," as they put it. But it was a bit less common for that social gathering to be a chess tournament—it wouldn't have been the first event she would have thought of that necessitated any music. But she wasn't one to question the will (or the wallet) of her patrons, so she played her set as she always did. So long as they honored their agreement and she wasn't disturbed during her playing, that was all that mattered.

Viola walked back to Buffy's apartment, her violin case thumping on her back. When she made it to her marefriend's door, she knocked twice, waited a moment, and opened the door without further fanfare.

"Good morning, Buffy," she said as she entered, knowing full well that it was the afternoon and the sun was already beginning its descending arc. She had left to attend the tournament at dawn, and at that time, Buffy was not even close to waking up. As far as she was concerned, it was morning.

Viola dropped her case on the floor to silence. She rolled her eyes. It wouldn't have been the first time Buffy decided to sleep in this late. She never understood her marefriend's sleep schedule, but she decided to go to her room and check on her.

Upon ascending the stairs and opening the door to Buffy's bedroom, she found sheets tossed about and a jumble of stuffed animals, as expected, but no Buffy. Instead, she was in the adjoining bathroom, very much awake, and leaning in to the wall mirror.

"Good morning, Buffy," Viola said again.

Buffy's ears perked up, and she turned around. "Oh, morning, Vi! When'd you get there?" She stepped out of the bathroom. Face to face with Buffy, Viola noted that, contrary to her assumption, she must have been awake for quite a while. How else would she had had the time to dress up as she had?

Buffy was clad in a smart periwinkle cocktail dress, complete with plenty of frills and lacy accents. Two short sleeves went down her forelegs, but going only so far as her shoulders and ending in a puff. It was a dress she had seen hanging in her wardrobe since she had arrived, and Viola always imagined it looked hideous. But somehow, Buffy managed to wear it well, and she looked all the cuter because of it.

Four baby blue and gold slippers were on her end of her hooves. They were, again, the kind of insubstantial and almost childish slippers that nopony could wear and look good in. Except Buffy, it seemed.

Viola rarely saw Buffy in a dress, but especially given this moment, she wouldn’t have minded seeing it more often. She turned to the side and put a hoof to her cheek, trying to disguise her blush. "Um . . . Dress?" was all she managed to say. She was normally composed and found neutrality easy and safe, but the sight of Buffy in front of her threw her off-balance. She stole the rest of the words from her mouth.

"Oooh!" Buffy spun around in a circle and let her mane fly out. In contrast to her normal unrestrained puffy jumble of a mane she wore most of the time, it was now swept into two (puffy) pigtails. As if she wasn't already cute enough. "What do you think?"

A number of words came to Viola's mind all at once: 'cute,' 'precious,' 'pretty,' 'adorable,' and 'squishy' were just a hoof-ful of the words she was thinking of.

"I'm going out to dinner with Azura tonight, and I wanna show her my new dress," Buffy continued. "I don't know, too much? Should I add the necklace? What do you think?" Buffy turned around, poking at a necklace on her bedside table.

And with Buffy's words, all of the words Viola was thinking of came to a crashing halt. She was going on a dinner date with Azura? That in of itself wasn't that shocking—dinners were a half-bit a dozen with her previous dalliances—but this was their very first one. And Buffy was dressing up for it? She didn't dress up for the first dinner date with any of her other suitors. She hadn't even dressed up this much for theirs.

Buffy had since put on the necklace and turned back around. Her necklace was adorned with a small amethyst attached to a gold chain. The gem scintillated with the same vibrancy and life that her eyes did. One more word came to mind: 'beautiful.'

Everything in front of her was beautiful. And none of it was for her.

First a kiss, and now this.

Azura . . . Viola didn't realize how ugly a name that was when she rolled it around in her mouth.

She didn't say any of the words she was thinking of or wanted to say. "It's . . . nice," she mumbled instead in a low drone.

"That's great!" Buffy said, though whether she heard her at all, Viola didn't know. She was certainly still the bubbly obnoxious thing she always was. She drummed her four hooves on the ground. "Oooh, I'm so excited! You know that place down the street, Magnolia?"

"Yes," Viola said, only half listening. It was rude to ask to tag along on a date, but she was considering it for a brief moment. And once again, she wasn't even the one who was supposed to do the tagging along.

"Yeah, we're going there! I hear the food is great and I'll be with Azura and there's just so much that we haven't talked about yet and there's so much more that we could talk about and—" an alarm clock interrupted her torrent of syllables "—I'm gonna be late! I'll see you 'round, Vi!" Buffy turned off the alarm clock and zipped out her bedroom door, swiftly followed by the creak and slam of her front door.

Viola was left standing in the room, eyes trained on Buffy's door where she saw her last.

"Bye," she said lamely to the door. She was quite a few seconds late. Given how excited and hyper Buffy was, she was probably already at the Magnolia with Azura.

Azura . . .

Goodness, what was I drinking when I wrote this? Sfortzando during a pizzicato section? How does one even do that?

Viola grabbed a pencil by the shaft in her mouth and scribbled out a few notes. She moved back to plucking her violin with the tips of her coverts. It really was a revolution in technique since she had invented it—plucking the strings with her coverts while fingering with her primaries. It let her execute far more complex pizzicato sections than others could, just as this one was. A double time double stopped section was no mean feat. Viola could feel her feathers burning.

Simultaneous arco and pizzicato? I wonder how that would sound.

Viola retrieved her bow with a hoof. While continuing the same blistering plucking section she had been playing, she simultaneously bowed improvised harmonious notes on a free string, calling her other wing to finger for it. What a perk it was to have two additional appendages.

Won't that be an interesting section.

She finished her improvisation with a flourish from her bow and stepped back from the music. And she paused.

Viola could see in her mind's eye an image of a certain pony, applauding, wanting to come and give her a hug. And she could hear herself reprimand her, reminding her that hugs were strictly off-limits when she was holding an instrument. She could imagine herself propping her violin against a wall and bracing for the inevitable tackle the moment she took her hoof off it.

She blinked. Her violin was against the wall, and she had a foreleg in front of her face by way of instinctual defense. But there was no cheer, and there was no hug.

She was the only one in Buffy's apartment.

She brought her hoof back down and bit her lip. Rarely did she play such a furious and technical section, rarely did she play it so loudly, and rarely did she forget to close the window while she practiced, projecting the sounds of her music up and down the streets. Given all these coincidences, wouldn't her public disturbance have gathered some attention?

She sighed and growled at the same time. The only way to battle noise was with noise, but if Buffy wasn't here, that could only mean that she was losing. Losing to—

Viola caught herself. No use in getting frustrated over . . . music.

She swept past the open window, brushing it with a wing. It swung closed, but its broken latch failed to engage with its mate on the sill. Slowly, the window started to drift back open.

Viola retrieved her violin and returned to her music stand. Even as the sun dipped below the horizon and cooled the light coming in, she continued to practice.

From the top.

Viola didn't know why she herself would have any reason to visit a woodcarver's, if not because Buffy really wanted to visit one. It wasn't the first time she had visited, either, though it was the first time Viola had come along to see what Buffy was so excited about. And after they left, she only half-understood why.

Buffy kept pace with Viola, but her eyes were not on the road. Rather, they were trained on the small item of carved wood in her hoof. It was a tiny pony figurine, stained grey with tiny yellow eye accents and adorned with a pair of even tinier bat wings. It was a marvel of woodwork and detail. And it was apparently not her only one.

"Oh my gosh, it's so tiny! I'm gonna keep him in a shoebox under my bed!" Buffy squealed *. "You're going to be . . . Batty! And you'll have so much fun with my deer friends and Trobbie and Darkie and everyone!"

Viola had snuck a look in said shoebox, and she did indeed collect wood-carved figurines, though of whom, she knew not. (The time she asked, Buffy's answer of "moderators" only confused her more.) All she knew was that Buffy would trip and crush the figurine in her hoof if she wasn't supervising her.

So Buffy continued to titter on about all the fun "Batty" would have with his new "friends," and Viola put a wing on Buffy's back and guided her back home without letting her trip on anything. As her apartment came into view, she saw a familiar sight. Unfortunately, "familiar" did not necessarily mean "welcome."

Buffy lifted her eyes from her new trinket for just long enough to notice who was at the door. "Azzy!" she cried out before escaping from under Viola's wing and skittering up to her. "It's so nice to see you!"

It was only too bad that she couldn't echo the sentiment. These unscheduled visits of Azura's were happening all too often. Viola folded her wing back in and continued walking at a saner pace.

"You too, Buffy! I was gonna ask you whether you wanted to go out later tonight, but it looks like you were a step ahead of me."

"I'm always down to go out with one of my favorite ponies! What do you have in mind?"

"Well, you've seen my day job already, but I don't think you've seen what happens at night, have you? Let's just say I host parties on a regular basis. The place is just down the street from here." Azura took her eyes off Buffy to glance at the pony behind her. "Oh, and you're invited too, Viola, if you want."

"That sounds like fun! What do you think, Vi?"

If she truly wanted to know what she thought, she thought she was, again and again, being treated like the third wheel when it was supposed to be the other way around. By Azura, no less. Viola didn't need to guess how she'd feel on such a "date," and it was nothing she felt particularly eager or excited about.

"I'm afraid I have a prior engagement with some bandmates today," she said. It wasn't a lie, really; there was a weekly music jam her roommate, Octavia, had made her aware of in Baltimare, and she had been meaning to audit it. Of course, between a date with Buffy and a simple music jam, she wouldn't have anticipated that this would have been her choice a few days ago.

"Alright, then," Azura said. "Have fun, Viola. You ready for a rave, Buffy?"

"Am I ever!"

By all measures, the music jam could only be described as "interesting." Viola was expecting a troupe of keyboard artists, string players, and brass virtuosos playing together in an unscripted jazz number. She was no jazz artist, but that was still something she would have liked to spectate and try her hoof at.

What she found instead was something more akin to a poetry slam, a single pony on a bar piano and another on bongos . . . and a horde of young colts looking to try spitting their terrible rap songs. It was a cacophony, to put it lightly.

It wasn't all bad, though. Once those colts left, the only pony left behind was the one at the piano, playing a swing cadence with a simple chord progression. Viola took out her violin and complemented the chords with a melody of her own. Little did she know she'd find the jazz session she was looking for as well as a surprise in the form of a guest.

"Hey, you're pretty good, miss. What's your name, cutie?" the stallion at the keyboard asked, a smile on his face.

"Viola. And my compliments to your playing ability as well," she responded prudently.

"Eh, I've been playing blues and jazz piano my whole life, so I know m' way around. Boogie Woogie's the name." He extended his hoof from the piano in invitation for a hoofshake, all the while continuing to play a swung chord progression with his other.

Viola took the hoof and shook it duly. But just as she was about to return the greeting in kind, a new pony entered the shop. She was a grey mare with a bowtie and a large cello case strapped to her back. She was also a mare Viola could recognize across a crowded room.

"Octavia!" Viola exclaimed, a rare note of excited surprise entering her voice. "What are you doing here?"

Octavia only smiled. "Good to know you took my suggestion seriously, Viola!" She unloaded her instrument and retrieved it from the case. She took her bow and ran it across each string while adjusting the pegs at the head to tune it. "When I recommended this place to you, I was speaking from experience. Boogie's a good and very skilled jazz pianist, and we've been playing together for years."

"You two know each other?" Boogie Woogie asked.

"Viola is my roommate back in Canterlot," Octavia replied, "and also a very good friend. When she told be she'd be visiting Baltimare, I thought you two should get acquainted."

"Well, .thank you. for informing me that you'd be making an unscheduled visit as well," Viola responded sarcastically.

"Would you like me to leave?" Octavia asked, a smile on her face that said she already knew the answer.

Viola made a show of huffing and acting annoyed but gave her friend a hug anyways. "No. It's good to see you, Octavia. It wasn't too taxing for you to haul your cello all the way here, was it?"

Octavia returned the hug in kind. "Not at all, especially if it promises some time with you."

"Hey!" Boogie Woogie interjected. "Enough talking, more playing! It's nice to hear about both of you's life stories, but I haven't got all day!" He played a glissando down the piano before launching into an upbeat and much faster number.

Octavia stood up on two legs and used her cello's endpin as a third. She used one hoof to finger her strings and the other to pluck them, complimenting the piano with bass tones. "He's right, you know."

So Viola walked back to Buffy's after a long jam session, violin on her back, the sun already set hours ago. The only light that lit the road in front of her was that of the bright crescent moon in the cloudless sky. Humble abodes, naked trees, and hanging streetlights were the only things marking its sides. The scene synesthesiastically suggested silence.

Thus, the incessant thump she felt in her chest and the rumble in her ears was rather out of place.

Viola ventured closer to its source, and as she did, the music grew louder. House music, with a bassline so overpowering that she could feel it blocks away. It seemed to come from a square brick building with a large proscenium arch opening to the road. And from inside came a plethora of dancing spotlights of blue, green, and red. And a loud, amplified voice:

"Oh, you lightweights, that was nothing! If that got you exhausted, you'll want to leave before this next one. Unless you want a challenge?"

Oh, no. Viola knew that voice.

"Fine, you asked for it! Deejay Azura is gonna shave your fetlocks!"

Viola wasn't keen on passing by such a nightclub on her way home, and she was even less keen on it if Azura was hosting it. But sans an unreasonable detour, this was the only way back, so she kept walking. And out of morbid curiosity, she had to turn her head and see what was going on inside as she passed.

As expected, there was Azura, lofted on a high dais, perched behind a turntable and bobbing her head to the music. Above her stretched a catwalk and a line of spotlights, moving and spinning on their own whims and illuminating the crowd beneath. A horde of ponies danced on the floor, some on their hindlegs, some wearing glowing bands on their hindlegs. But as a white spotlight swept across the back of the crowd, she saw the pink and purple jumble of a mane on the head on one pony in particular.

Viola froze and stopped to watch. She would know that mane anywhere.

Buffy was dancing like she'd never seen her before, on her hindlegs, jumping, one forehoof pumping the air. She spun and kicked and bobbed to the music. And when she turned around, Viola saw the mindless and infectious joy on her face.

"Feel the music in your hooves, your chest, your soul!" Azura cheered.

She couldn't hear Buffy say a word, but her lips read, "Yeah! I feel it!"

The longer Viola watched, the heavier and faster and more panicked her breaths came.

Viola had played music for Buffy before. Many, many times. And certainly, certainly every time she appeared happy with it and listened courteously. Maybe she even gave her a tacklehug afterwards. But this, this was music as well, this produced from Azura, and it elicited a joy from her marefriend just as great. Perhaps even greater.

The music did pierce her soul, but in a way she never wanted it to.

She was born with it. She grew up with it. She trained with it. She made a career out of it. It was no exaggeration to say that music was not a part of her life; it was her life.

But in this one, endless moment, from her Buffy whom she thought loved her so very much, the very thing that ran through Viola's blood and made her who she was . . . Azura took that, too.

Buffy still danced in front of her, smiling obscenely, oblivious of Viola's own crisis. But she couldn't bear to watch any longer. She couldn't bear to see her Buffy turn into somepony else's.

With an iron will and steeling of her heart, Viola ripped her eyes away from the nightclub. She kept walking.

How strange that the bass she felt knock in her chest knocked the moisture out of her eyes as well.

4. The Final Date

Viola sipped at her tea while staring at its handle intently. She drank with a companion, but Buffy was no tea drinker; she chewed on some biscuits and had a soda to her left instead. A clink issued from the saucer as she set her teacup down, and it was the only sound that disrupted the sounds of the ticking clock and Buffy's chewing.

It was the first time she'd been witness to a taciturn moment of silence with Buffy for a very long time.

And it would be a pleasant time. She would sip at her tea as Buffy sprinkled affection on her. She would watch ponies pass on the road while Buffy nuzzled into her neck. She would think of nothing but what she would do for the day and what potential her marefriend would have for messing it up.

It would.

Instead, she sipped at her tea and thought about something else, something that had been first on her mind for a very long time now. But she didn't want to think of her name. And it was that thought that colored her whole perception of Buffy and dates with Buffy. Even as she rested her head on her shoulder as she did so very often, Viola didn't feel a rush of warmth or bloom in her heart.

Only silence.

And then it was broken. "You planning anything for today, Vi?" Buffy said, not taking her head off Viola's shoulder.

"Nothing particularly exciting. I have a small concert tonight I have to attend to, though," Viola said idly while her mind wandered elsewhere. She threaded a pinion through the teacup handle and lifted it to her mouth.

"Oh! Then you don't mind if I go out with Azura tonight?"

Beyond her control, Viola grimaced. Her wing twitched, and a drop of tea splashed out of it. In truth, she did mind, and quite a bit.

Buffy continued. "She wants to go out of town and explore the quarry nearby. I'm not sure why she wants to go there, but maybe there's something exciting to see?"

She probably wants to propose to you, Viola thought grimly. She really didn't believe that would be possible after so little time, but Azura had already gone so far beyond what she thought capable already. It, somehow, had to remain a possibility. Along with the ceremony itself, some discussion that Viola no longer had a part in their relationship, and anything else she couldn't think of.

She put her tea back down on the saucer without taking a drink. The clink that issued was louder than before.

"I mean, even if there isn't anything to do, I guess we could find something. Maybe she set up her sound system there without my noticing. That would be a great place to throw a party, don't you think? Where it won't disturb too many other ponies?"

Oh, but it disturbs me.

And off she went, on and on. Azura, and everything she could do, and how well they got along.

"She's so nice, and there's always something to do with her, even if we're not going to an exciting place. Never a dull moment!"

Viola's frown deepened.

"She plays the best music, too, and we could just have so much fun if we went there. Maybe if she played a slower one, we could dance to it!" Buffy brought a hoof to Viola's chest and rubbed at it.

But then Viola looked at her. Her head was casually resting on her shoulder, and she was looking up to her with big eyes, a lackadaisical smile on her face. With her adorably disheveled mane against her coat, looking so prickly but feeling so soft. And that perfect pink coat against which she could never te// whether her marefriend was blushing. Against the soothing scent of tea, her Buffy smelled, strangely enough, spicy. Like whatever magical sparkles were coming off her mane were too much for her nose to handle.

By all measures, Buffy was still just as spellbinding as the day she met her.

"All three of us!"

And almost instinctually, Viola recoiled, her leg hitting the table and splashing a few more drops from her drink. Even as she basked in her love with Buffy, Azura found a way to barge her way in and spoil it all. Every. Single. Damn. Time.

She couldn't take it any more.

Three of them, that was what Buffy said. Well, if that was true, why did it feel like she was fighting against two? Every single time she came, it was Azura, Azura, Azura, all day long!

"Viola, are you okay? What was that about Azura?" Buffy was standing up from the table, her face dropped into one of more concern.

Viola had since stood up as well, and apparently she had voiced her last thoughts aloud. She found her breaths shallow and rapid, her brows were angled sharply, and her teeth were set. This was what that Azura did to her.

"Viola?"

She lost her kisses, she lost her dates, she lost her music, and she lost her Buffy. It was a frightening pony, a mare with nothing left to lose. And Viola had nothing left but her temper.

"So that's who it's all about," she began in a low voice, her mouth moving only slightly as she spoke. "Azura here, Azura there. I guess there's no more time for any Viola now, hmm?"

"What? What are you talking about, Viola? Of course I—"

"Of course you don't have time for me," she interrupted. She didn't need to hear Buffy's answer; she already knew it. "I don't know why I even ask."

"Of course I do! Viola, you're scaring me," Buffy said, a tremor coming into her voice. She backed away from the table a step. Viola matched it, brushing past the table. The biscuits remained there, half-eaten.

"Always time for her. I guess if that's how things are going to be, why don't you just marry her, then?"

"What? No, of course not! I mean, of course she's nice, and she's really cute, and she's really fun to talk to, but what makes you think I would do that?"

"And there you go again!" Viola snapped, her voice a dangerous mix of obvious frustration and seething rage. "Every single time you talk about her, you have to go on and on and on about just how much fun you have with her, and how much you like her. That's all you have to say now! What with all this love you're showering on this 'Azzy' of yours, have you even spared a moment to think about me?"

Buffy backed up a few more steps. "Vi, I—"

"Don't call me that!" Viola stalked closer and closed the gap at once. Her voice was almost entirely at the whims of her emotions now, and they wanted her to scream. "How can you even keep stringing me along when you've made it devastatingly clear that I'm not wanted anymore?"

Buffy worked her mouth, but no words came out.

"Fine!" Viola slammed a hoof on the ground. "Take her inside, kiss her inside and out until she's dizzy from all of it. Take her on dates every day and talk, talk, talk. Shower all your love on your new marefriend and leave none for the one who was first. Who writes songs for you. Who you let live in your own house! See if I care!" she roared.

"V-Viola!" Buffy cried, raising her own voice to rise above the tumultuous waves of Viola's roiling anger. "You know it doesn't work that way! I'm polyamorous, remember? I love both of you!"

Viola wouldn't admit that she forgot Buffy was polyamorous. It changed nothing. "So that's what it means to be a polyamorous relationship?" she hissed. "Me constantly needing to compete for your love against somepony else you call a 'partner'? Isn't that a good arrangement for you, being at the top of the food chain."

"What? N-no, that's not it at all! Just because I found Azura doesn't mean I love you any less!" Buffy kept on backing up until she had no room left, her hindquarters pressed against her apartment walls.

Viola took the ground Buffy relinquished until they were almost muzzle to muzzle. "Is that so. Is that really, really so. Well, tell me why I can't even enjoy time with you anymore for fear that Azura will take all of that away. Why I've spent evenings alone in your home with nothing but my violin to keep me company while you were off gallivanting without a care. Why?"

Buffy was curled up against the wall, fear written in her face and her voice. "Viola, I don't—"

"Why!"

"I don't know!" Buffy screamed, her body turned away and her face covered as if she was preparing for a strike. But Viola didn't respond. Cautiously, she uncurled and opened her eyes again.

And what she saw was a mare unrecognizable from both the Viola she knew and the Viola she feared.

Her temper was spent. Even the bottomless anger in her heart was gone, all now laying on the ground. And with that veneer exhausted, it revealed beneath the sea of emotions building the entire time. Shrouded by anger but ever-present, and shown to Buffy for the first time.

Viola was crying.

Contrary to her aggressive attitude earlier, now Viola was turned away, head in her hooves, chest hitching with sobs. Because behind all the anger was a terrible truth she knew had to be true but that she refused to believe until her dying anger insulated it from her no more. The friend she learned to like and the mare she learned to love, in everything she was . . . It was all gone. Perhaps her speech and her "polyamory" would try and convince her otherwise, but actions spoke louder than words. Viola knew enough.

"Why?" she whispered, her voice a feeble and trembling echo of the fiery roar it was just moments ago. "Why is it that you have to leave me like this? Without a word except to abandon me. It's like you don't care for me at all anymore!"

"Vi!" Buffy cried. She wrapped her hooves around Viola, but she could pay it no mind, nor did she physically respond.

"I-I gave you my heart, Buffy, and I trusted you to keep it safe," she continued. "But all you could do was . . . feed it a little and leave it to die. Just like . . . Just like so long ago."

"What do you mean, Viola? What so long ago? Please, talk to me!" Buffy said desperately.

Viola didn't listen; she was ensnared by her own emotions and memories. All she could do was monologue. "Again, and again, and again. Is this how it will always be? Is it all a lie? That they never cared for you, and they never did. Is it ever worth the sacrifice when it feels like this in the end?"

Viola opened her wings and pushed Buffy away from her. She never looked at her, but she addressed her directly. "Leave. I can't bear to see you anymore." It wasn't lost on her that she was asking Buffy to leave her own home, but wherever it was, she needed to be alone.

"N-No! Viola, wh-whatever I did, I'm sorry!"

"Leave."

"P-Please, don’t!"

"Leave." Viola never changed her tone of voice, but her words and stance remained adamant. Her wings remained flared, and she would let nopony in when all they could do was hurt her more. Buffy had only one choice, and Viola would not stop until she took it.

"Leave."

Buffy's words stopped. And slowly, ever so slowly, she heard hoofsteps recede from her and the front door creak as it opened. But it didn't close for a very long time.

She heard a sniffle and a sob, and it wasn't from her. And even though Viola thought she had severed that bond, she felt a pang in her chest, one she wished she didn't have to feel. Damn her. Damn her and everypony she chose to love.

"I-I really care for you, Viola, I really do," Buffy sniffled from the door. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

Viola did not respond. And when she didn't respond for several minutes more, she heard the front door close again.

5. Reproach

Buffy sat alone on a bench overlooking the Baltimare Botanical Gardens. The Gardens were still and quiet, and a pony could just sit and relax as she absorbed in the sights and sounds all around her. But whatever they were, Buffy did none of that.

Not so long ago, she had excitedly brought Viola and Azura here to show them around. It was a good time. She didn't know why she found herself somewhere that smelled so strongly of her partners and held such fond romantic memories. Maybe, deep down, she just wanted to punish herself for hurting somepony she loved. As she sat staring into the distance through her tired, glistening eyes, she couldn't help but feel like it was something she deserved.

How could she have let this happen? She had never seen Viola like that: so angry, so volatile, so . . . hurt.

She was hurt, and Buffy was the one who hurt her.

But why? What did she do to convince Viola that she was no longer loved or important or wanted, or even that she was being replaced? What was it she did or didn't do that made it seem like she didn't care? And what happened to Viola so long ago that was happening again because . . . because of her? It was just all so confusing. She didn't know so much, and it hurt that she didn't know so much and didn't know what it meant. Because Viola was hurt by it anyways.

Tears welled in her eyes until they overflowed, streaking down her face and dripping onto the bricks below. She could hear noises all around her and feel the setting sun on her back and the breeze in her fur, but everything she sensed meant nothing. Her heart and mind were consumed by her own grief and the hitching in her chest and the damp streaks on her face.

By the time any noise grew loud enough for Buffy to care about investigating it, its source was only a few feet away from her. She heard a voice, and she moved head towards the familiar voice slowly. As if she barely had the energy or willpower to move.

"Buffy! I'm so glad I ran into you, I just got the best idea for this new short film and I wanted to run by—Buffy? Buffy!"

Her sight, formerly obscured by tears, was then occluded by a haze of lime green. She felt hooves embrace her as Viridian hugged her. "Buffy, what's wrong? What happened?" she asked.

Buffy could only find the means to hug back. It took her a long time before she found the means to speak. "I messed up, Viridian," Buffy croaked, her simultaneous sniffles making her words almost unintelligible. "Viola hates me. Sh-she thinks I want to leave her to be with Azura, and she thinks I like Azura more than her." Buffy sniffled a few more times and resisted the urge to start bawling. "I don't want to lose her; I don't want to lose anypony!" She lost the battle almost instantly and started crying loudly anyways, her torrents of tears watering the plants in the Garden.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Buffy," Viridian said, patting her on the back. "I wish I knew what to say. I don't know what you're going through, but I guess it's really hard." She paused. "I guess I did watch this movie recently, where—wait, no. That was a love triangle." She stopped patting. "There was this other one though, and—no, that was a love triangle too. Hold on."

Buffy's tears had not subsided in the least.

"You know, I can't think of, well, any movie that features polyamory, actually." Viridian started patting and rubbing Buffy's back again. "Sorry, that doesn't help at all, does it?"

It took Buffy several minutes to calm down enough to say anything at all in response. "No, it's okay," Buffy finally said. "I don't know if anypony can help me. Nopony knows how to do polyamory right. And if Viola was so hurt, maybe not even me." Buffy blew her nose into Viridian's chest. At least the snot would blend in.

"Maybe I'm never going to be with somepony without hurting them or being left by them. Maybe nopony can be happy with a polyamorous mare." Buffy's voice got more and more despondent with every passing word. "Maybe I was just made wrong."

"What? Buffy, you're being ridiculous!" Viridian shook her charge a little.

Buffy looked up at Viridian, ears pinned back against her head.

Viridian grimaced. "What I mean is, you're one of the nicest ponies I've ever met! You're sweet, and you love everypony! You want to make everypony happy! There's nothing wrong with that!"

"But . . . but what if no one can ever love me the way I am?" Her breathing hitched again; she could feel the tears coming back. "Viola . . . Sh-she said that polyamory just means that you have more ponies competing for your time, that you're at the top, that you're the only one in the relationship who gets to be happy and get enough attention!"

"Is that true?" Viridian asked.

"No, of course not!" Buffy squealed, shaking her head vehemently, moving more than she had for hours. "That's not it at all! I don't want to just take love and attention; I'm polyamorous because I want to give love and attention to as many ponies as I can! There's just so many amazing and wonderful ponies out there who deserved to be loved, and if I only dated one of them, I wouldn't get to know so many others, and they'd all be left out! I want to be able to make everypony I date feel happy and special and wonderful, but just because I want to do that for more than one pony doesn't mean I want anypony to be any less happy or feel any less special!"

Viridian blinked a few times, head blown back and ears pinned down by the volume of Buffy's sudden outburst.

Buffy thought about the words that just came pouring out of her mouth so easily and yet so emotionally. It was a protest, a plea against a mass of ponies who not only disagreed with her ideas, but disagreed with Buffy the pony. A familiar voice echoed in her ears.

"So that's what it means to be a polyamorous relationship? Me constantly needing to compete for your love against somepony else you call a 'partner'? Isn't that a good arrangement for you, being at the top of the food chain."

But along with hers came so many others, some from times long gone, others from times recent. They were the voices she hated to hear, but they were the ones that followed her wherever she went, as long as she was who she was. Buffy shook her head incessantly as those other ethereal voices joined Viola's in a mob of hate.

"That's disgusting! Why don't you learn to respect yourself?"

"If that's how you feel, you must have never actually loved anypony."

"Is that the new word for skank or something?"

Her breathing quickened. Was this how Viola really felt? Did she ever really accept her for who she was? The mob that taunted her wore many different faces. She hoped to Dear Celestia that Viola wasn't among them.

"NO!" she screamed, eyes glassy with tears and terrible visions, though whether they were real or fictional, she couldn't tell anymore.

"Buffy!" Viridian cried as she redoubled her hug. "Nopony hurts you; nopony hates you!" she said frantically.

Buffy stared into the distance while Viridian hugged her. The anger she saw in Viola's eyes was unmistakable, and in those eyes, she saw herself. What did Viola see her as?

"No . . ." she began in a shaky voice, one that threatened to break at any moment. "Viola wouldn't hate me for being the way that I was made. She wouldn't. She couldn't." More tears fell from Buffy's glassy eyes as she saw her reflection and struggled to identify it. "But then, why would she say those things about me? Why is she so mad at me? Why does she think I don't care about her, and that I just want to be with Azura all the time?"

Viridian started to say something, but she didn't hear it. "It's not like I don't spend time with Viola or anything. I mean, I guess I've been spending more time with Azura lately, but that's only because I just want to get to know her better. It's just exciting getting to know another pony when you're just starting to date them, and wouldn't Viola know that? Wouldn't she remember how excited I was to get to know her? I spent all the time in the world just trying to get her to smile."

Oh, how she missed that smile so much. It seemed a thousand miles away, now. "I mean, sure I wasn't dating anypony else when I started dating Viola, so I guess that part's a little bit different. And I guess this is the first time I've actually met somepony so interesting like Azura that I want to spend all the time in the world to get to know them, too."

More of Viola's words echoed in Buffy's ears, as if she were saying them right next to her.

Well, tell me why I can't even enjoy time with you anymore for fear that Azura will take all of that away. Why I've spent evenings alone in your home with nothing but my violin to keep me company while you were off gallivanting without a care.

"But I do love spending time with both of you!" Buffy responded to the voice. "I love having all of us spend time together because I love being around you two so much. Being around both of you at once is even better!"

"So that's who it's all about, Azura here, Azura there.

"Every single time you talk about her, you have to go on and on and on about just how much fun you have with her, and how much you like her. That's all you have to say now!"

"Is... is that really all that's wrong? That Viola felt like I wasn't spending enough time with her or paying enough attention to her? Why wouldn't she say so?"

For the first time in a long while, Buffy turned to Viridian for an answer.

She had her mouth gaped open.

"Of course you're right, Viridian," Buffy responded. "Viola just doesn't talk very much. She doesn't come right out and say what she wants, or even what she needs."

Buffy no longer heard Viola's words in her head. Instead, it was filled with the sounds of music. That sad, angry dirge she was playing the first time they met. She never said a word, and yet Buffy mostly knew what she was saying. A way of communicating that she should have learned better by now.

"Man, you hear that sick tune? Didn't know the Magnolia played such crazy violin music!"

"I know, it sounds so cool and fierce and angry!" Buffy tried bobbing her head to the music but couldn't keep up with the frenetic pace. "I didn't even know you could make that many sounds from a violin! Doesn't sound like it's coming from the Magnolia, though." She pointed generally away from the restaurant in the opposite direction. In fact, it seemed like she was pointing straight at her—

"I dunno either, but if I can find whoever's playing it, that is definitely someone I'd want to showcase in my radio show. Actually, lemme tell you a little more about it . . ."

Viola's angry eyes stayed clear in her eyes, and she saw her reflection. And what she saw was a mare who had been talked to, pleaded to for a long time. But she didn't listen.

"I need to talk to her. I need to let her know that I care. If she just wants more time with me, I can do that! I-I want to spend time with her and make her feel special because she's that special to me! I need to fix it . . ."

All of a sudden, Buffy sat up stock-straight. "What if she's gone? What if she already went back to Canterlot? I need to get back home; I need to talk to her!"

She wiped the remaining tears from her eyes with a foreleg before throwing both forelegs around Viridian and nuzzling her damp face into her friend's mane.

"Thank you so much, Viridian! You helped so much, and I don't know how I'll ever repay you! I have to find her, but we'll talk soon, okay?"

And without another second to wait, Buffy was off, bolting towards her apartment as fast as her legs could take her.

Viridian looked at the dust raised from the path as a pony galloped down it as fast as she could. She had a confused look on her face and an even more confused head. It took her a long time to come to her senses and say something to Buffy. Well, her hoofprints, at least.

"B-but I didn't do anything!"

Buffy trotted up the stairs to her apartment door, sweat dripping down her face, mingling with her tear stains to create an altogether less than attractive appearance. How she looked didn't matter, though; all that mattered to her was Viola. She threw the door open and rushed inside.

Immediately, her heart sank.

Viola wasn't there. Naturally, she could only see the living room and the kitchen from the door, but she knew. She checked the other rooms, though, out of a desperate hope that she was wrong and Viola was hiding in a cookie jar or something.

Nothing.

Viola had left. Maybe forever.

Buffy dropped herself into a chair, folding over and burying her face in her lap. She didn't know what to do now. Viola probably went back to Canterlot, but she couldn't look all over the city for her. And that was on the assumption that she'd want to see her at all.

She shifted so that she was laying with her hindlegs over one armrest, facing the chair where Viola had been sitting earlier that day. Her teacup was still there, almost full, a few inches away from the saucer. Viola's favorite pillow was there too, pressed against the back of the chair. Even her violin was there, propped up against the side of the chair, completing a scene so quintessentially Viola. All that was missing was the mare herself. Seeing the incomplete scene brought tears to her eyes all over again.

"Wait . . ."

Buffy abruptly sat up, hindlegs still hanging over the armrest, staring at Viola's violin. Her most prized possession. Something she would never just leave somewhere unless she had to leave in a hurry. Something she had to come back for.

Viola was going to come back.

Buffy smiled again. She knew her marefriend would come back. She just had to wait.

Waiting, however, did not come naturally to Buffy. If that was what she had to do, she figured it would be best to find something to do while she waited. Perhaps she could do something nice for Viola, like make her a present? Oh, a present sounded like a great idea! Everypony likes presents, and it would show Viola how much Buffy cared about her for sure!

But, what could she make?

6. Remnants

Viola stayed on the floor, head in her hooves for what seemed like hours. Even after Buffy finally left, she remained frozen on the floor, and her weeping refused to subside for several minutes.

She betrayed me, she thought, over and over again. I thought she could just keep our relationship strong while she dated those other nincompoops. But all she could do was run around and look for more love while she used "polyamory" as the reason. She'd always been a little concerned about how important she would be in this kind of relationship, where she was just one of multiple romantic partners. Little did she know she was exactly right. Polyamory was just an excuse for Buffy to "test out" multiple special someponies and find the ones she liked best. Leaving a trail of broken hearts in its wake.

Damn her.

Viola rarely cried, if ever. She could only recall one time in the past she had done the same. But Buffy had become such a significant part of her life, and for her to discover in this roundabout way that Buffy didn't care for her nearly as much anymore . . . it overwhelmed all the emotional stability she had.

I'm not a part of her life anymore . . . so she can't be a part of mine. She's betrayed me one too many times, and I won't let her do it again. Never again.

She originally took a vacation to Baltimare to get to know the city and spend time with her marefriend in her city. And Buffy insisted that she stay in her home. With everything that transpired and everything she knew about her marefriend—former marefriend—she wasn't comfortable staying.

Viola sighed, sniffled one last time, and slowly got to her feet. She needed to leave, so she headed to the bathroom and collected her toiletry supplies. That was when she saw her reflection in the wall mirror.

I look terrible, she thought. Her eyes were bloodshot, her signature eyeshadow was nearly rubbed off completely, and the curls in her bangs were jagged and uneven. She had just been weeping for Celestia-knows-how-long, and she was thoroughly unpresentable because of it. She sighed again and set to fixing her appearance. But even as she was doing that, a memory unbidden leapt into her mind.

"Aww, Vi, why won't you open the door? I wanna help you wash up!" Buffy called while knocking incessantly on the bathroom door. It was one of the (very) few times that she ever woke up at roughly the same time Viola did. And Buffy had apparently never seen this part of her morning ritual before.

"You know that I'm already done with that, Buffy. I'll be out in a moment once I finish my makeup," Viola said while closing one eye and applying her eyeshadow.

"Well, can I help you with that?"

"No. That would be disastrous."

Buffy said nothing more. Instead, the knob turned and she opened the door, much to Viola's shock. How did she forget to lock the bathroom door? "Ack!" she exclaimed, throwing a towel at her marefriend. "Buffy, get out! Give me some time after I wake up!"

Buffy, of course, did not listen. She caught the flying projectile and walked to Viola with it, a coy smile on her face. "Aww, was that what this was all about?" Buffy took another step forward, smiling wider. "Because you still look pretty cute like this!"

"Ah, wha—" Viola didn't have time to finish her exclamation of surprise. Her mouth was already being used for other purposes.

Viola was frozen, her hoof in the middle of applying her eyeshadow, in exactly the same place it was that time she was interrupted. But it froze for only a moment. The next, she was moving again, the hoof working on her other eye.

"That mare," she mused aloud, "being so disrespectful to barge in on me when I was still working. At least she didn't stumble in while I was bathing. Even though she did think I was . . . cute."

Viola grunted and shook off those thoughts. She couldn't have those anymore. As cute and compliment-filled Buffy could be, she was also a disrespectful brat who respected her little enough to find another mare when she lost interest in her. She could have no affection for that.

Viola took her time to make herself—at least—marginally presentable again before gathering her toiletry supplies and taking them with her. She brought only one pair of saddlebags with her, so she put her supplies back in them before gathering whatever other things she had brought with her when she first came here. Horseshoes, stationery, horsehair bow, perfume, jewelry, music stand.

She saw some loose leaves on the ground, marked with hoof-drawn staves and clefs. They were sitting next to her violin case. She crouched down to gather them up, but as she read a few of the notes on them, another memory resurfaced.

It was still a work in progress, honestly. She had written most of it over the span of an afternoon in a fit of passion. Inspiration struck her whenever it pleased, and it just so happened that the events of a few days ago had done just that.

Viola played the hastily written notes. It wasn't the most elegant music; some of the notes seemed miswritten by a third or a fifth, and they occasionally necessitated some awkward string-jumping. But Viola could feel the emotion in the music, and judging by the swaying of her only audience member, she felt it, too.

It was fitting, perhaps. After all, it told the story of their relationship. How they were so different, how they rarely got along, but how they could still be together. It was truly a paradoxical arrangement, but one Viola couldn't be happier with. She wouldn't say that fact so frankly . . . but she would via music.

It was the first song she had played for Buffy since she arrived. And maybe the message would go right over her head. Actually, she was almost certain of it. Even so there was something she could certainly expect.

When she finished, Buffy launched herself towards her. "Viola that was amazing you're so talented and your songs are great and—"

"Buffy! What have I told you about tackling me after I finish playing?" There was mock-anger in those words—after all, she had just endangered her precious violin—but perhaps also a hint of hidden mirth. She had quietly shielded her violin with a hoof after she finished her song; her marefriend did this so often as to become predictable. Like a foal who never listened. An adorable, lovable foal who needed a slap on the fetlocks every so often.

Ummm, don't do it?

Because . . .

Because I could damage one of your instruments?

Exactly.

The memories rolled through her mind as she continued to stare at the sheets of music. Unbeknownst to her, Buffy had also doodled some purple and pink hearts on the music, also something she had chastised her marefriend for doing before.

"She's a foal. A stupid, irresponsible foal," she said to herself. "One who makes . . . mistakes?" she finished in a more uncertain voice.

She paused again. But angrily, she swept into motion again and swept the music away from her.

"This wasn't a mistake. And even if it was, I . . . I don't know if I can forgive her for it," she said. Ever since childhood, trust was something she kept in the highest honor, and it was something she only rarely gave to others because of the consequences if it was broken. To trust someone's love for you so implicitly as to become as dependable as the daily sunrise, but to later discover that that trust was misplaced . . .

What a mistake she made.

Viola had already gathered everything she needed, so she got ready to leave. But it seemed that Fate saw it fit to resurface one more memory before she left. Because on a dresser next to Buffy's front door was a picture of the two of them looking at each other, holding hooves, both smiling. It was one of the only pictures either of them had that had her flashing a genuine smile. And as Viola saw it out of the corner of her eye, the memory of how that picture came to be came to her mind.

Buffy pouted. "That's not a real smile, Vi! We can't save the picture if both of us aren't smiling!"

Viola frowned. "I don't know how much more you expect of me, Buffy. I smiled as I do in every photo shoot. I even laughed for you when you tickled me." She huffed. "I don't know why you want to do this one with me, either."

"And that's why I wanted to come here! That smile was fake, and they're all fake! And I don't want a laugh, either! I want to capture a moment with my partner that's sweet and memorable and happy and real! Don't you love me?" Buffy asked, pouting again.

Viola rolled her eyes. "I do, but I don't know what you want from me," she said, crossing her hooves.

Buffy dropped the pouting act and peeked her tongue out of the corner of her mouth, thinking. "I guess I need to bring out my secret weapon, then." She scampered to her saddlebags in the corner and retrieved a tiny wrapped parcel from them. A very poorly-wrapped parcel. "Happy birthday, Viola!"

Viola looked at the parcel but didn't react. "That's next week," she deadpanned.

"I know," Buffy said while shuffling her hooves, "but I got this early and we've been together for a long time now and is it okay if I give it to you now?"

Viola's expression did not change, though she was curious. She accepted the parcel, the wrapping paper more-or-less fell off, and she looked inside the box. There sat a pair of clip-on earrings, one adorned with a dangling treble clef, the other a bass clef. And as she looked at them, her eyes widened further and further.

These earrings weren't the tacky things clip-on earrings often were, and they weren't the tacky, juvenile kind of gift she expected from Buffy, either. They were, at the very least, gold plated, if not rolled gold or solid, and they looked like they cost at least a small sum. They were, by all accounts, intricate and real pieces of jewelry. It was beyond a mere token gesture, and far beyond what she expected from Buffy.

"Do you like them?" Buffy said, a hopeful look on her face.

Buffy was a fool. She was a silly, at times irresponsible, but squishy and lovable fool. And, as it turned out, she could be quite the thoughtful and romantic one as well. Viola took her eyes off the pieces and on her marefriend eyes. "I love them," she whispered.

Buffy took hold of Viola's hooves and gave her a warm smile. Viola couldn't help but return it in kind.

And out of the corner of her eye, she saw the blinding strobe of a flashbulb.

Viola was on the ground, her eyes closed tightly. The last memory had very nearly defeated her. "Stop it, stop it, stop it! Stop making me love you more!" she said, voice shaking on the edge of tears.

She still had those earrings; they were in her jewelry box right now. And although she infrequently wore them, she still felt that same bloom in her heart she felt when Buffy first gave them to her every time she looked at them. Buffy was so very frequently a silly pony who took little seriously, so her times of genuineness were all the more tender and sweet because of it.

"It must be a lie. But-but how can it when she—I have to rid myself of—but she can't be—aargh!" she said, unable to find something she believed in any more. She wanted to believe that Buffy never really cared, but she knew that wasn't true. She must have made a mistake, but she didn't want to forgive her. And through it all, Viola still loved her. Yet she didn't know if she could give Buffy another chance. She couldn't be wrong again.

The only thing she knew for certain was that she couldn't stay in Buffy's apartment, a place where she knew both unquestionable anger and unrivaled joy. It was all too confusing to her. So she closed her eyes and refused to look at anything else, for fear that they would conjure more memories that would force her to stay. Without another moment in waiting, she walked out of Buffy's door.

Once out, she knew almost instantly where she wanted—even needed—to go. She needed someone she could trust with her emotions implicitly and confide in without reserve. For some time, Buffy had been that pony, but for clear reasons, she was out of the question. Viola had made several friends in recent times, many of which she felt comfortable in confiding in, but her first friend, one she had before she even knew she had her, was the one she wanted to confide in most.

She directed herself towards Baltimare's train station.

Octavia was tired. Days and days of consecutive travel were sure to do that to a mare, and all while carrying a heavy cello. Canterlot for a Canterlot Philharmonic Orchestra concert, Ponyville for a private party, Vanhoover to get her cello repaired, Baltimare for a jazz jam session with a couple friends . . . It was only natural for her to be exhausted.

The sun had only set about one hour ago, but she was still ready for a good night's sleep. But just as she laid herself down on her bed and closed her eyes, she heard a knock on the door.

At any other time, Octavia would have moved to answer the door, but today, she kept her eyes closed, opting to assume the visitor was some solicitor or mailpony with a parcel. She could deal with it later.

Until the knocks came again. And again. And again and again and again and again and—

"Okay, okay! Calm down, I'm coming," Octavia shouted. She groaned and roused herself from her bed. This had better be good, she thought to herself, irritated. She opened the door.

Her roommate was outside, looking all packed up to head for an extended trip—or to return from one. She had mentioned she was visiting her marefriend, Buffy, in Baltimare for a few weeks and never specified a return date, so she was expecting Viola to show up eventually. What she wasn't expecting was for her to show up so distraught.

It was nothing overt that told Octavia of this—Viola was nothing if not a subtle pony who spoke little but said much. But her eyeshadow was imperfect, as if it had been rubbed off and hastily repaired, and the whites of her eyes were pink on the side. She was also biting her lip, something Viola had admonished her about because it made her look nervous. Octavia was familiar enough with Viola's mask of neutrality to know that this was not that mask.

And naturally, the fact that Viola didn't have her violin and didn't appear to notice was of significant concern.

"Viola, are you alright?" Octavia asked.

Viola's thin façade slipped at that point, and Octavia saw the full measure of misery, anger, confusion, and even fear in her face. She launched herself at her, and Octavia found herself holding up her friend and roommate in their doorway.

"I don't know," Viola whispered. And it was the tremor in her voice and shoulders that told Octavia how little her surrogate big sister really knew.

There was a tea set between them. It wasn't so much for Viola to calm down—more for Octavia to wake up. Because there was a lot to talk about, and Octavia, bless her heart, agreed to listen to every word.

Viola spared her nothing: from the dates, to Azura, to the explosion, to the memories, she told her everything. And at the very end, she asked the only question she wanted answered. "What should I do, Octavia?"

Octavia sipped her tea and appeared to ignore the question for several minutes, though her brow was furrowed. Eventually, she put down her cup and said, "I really don't know, Viola. This really is a mess you got yourself into."

'I know," Viola replied. "I just . . . I love her, and I want to love her. But I can't trust her anymore. It feels like . . . it feels like my mother from so many years ago. After she . . . stopped caring for me." That was all the detail she cared to remember about the incident. She only ever chose to remember it now though a sad and angry dirge she wrote a while ago. The same exact song that first had Buffy approach her and ask her why she was playing it.

Perhaps it was time she forget the song as well.

Octavia stepped forward and gave her another hug, one Viola returned in kind. Octavia had been the one who helped her work through her quarrel with her mother so long ago, so Viola trusted her with matters of the heart like no one else. Before she brought those memories up with her, she had trouble making friends at all. "Do you think Buffy meant to do it?" Octavia murmured.

"I . . . I don't know," Viola said. A lot of words described Buffy, many of which were less than glowing. Irresponsible, stupid, dangerous, forgetful, loud . . . but "malicious" was not one of them. If she ever did something bad—like set the stove on fire—it was always the result of some coincidence or oversight or stupidity on Buffy's part. But still, it was hard not to cast Azura and Buffy into the role of "villain" with something this big.

"I don't know her that well, but even I think she wouldn't do this on purpose."

". . . Perhaps. But that doesn't make things any better. Why did she have to do it?"

Octavia sighed and gave Viola a few rubs before saying. "I don't know that, either. You said that she's polyamorous, right? I don't . . . get it, really, but isn't she allowed to date somepony else while she's dating you?"

"Yes," Viola conceded, "but I didn't think that meant she could outright abandon me while she went dating with somepony else! I felt like . . . I felt like I was being treated like a stranger. I felt like she didn't care anymore because she only ever talked about Azura, not me."

Octavia released Viola and went silent for several moments before responding. She shook her head. "Viola, I don't know enough about this polyamory stuff to know if that's okay or not. You'd really need to talk to your marefriend to get that sorted out."

"But I . . . did?" Viola thought back. To all the dates that Buffy had with Azura and not her. She was always rather annoyed—even angry at times—that she was going on them. But . . .

"I'm fine."

"It's . . . nice."

"I'm afraid I have a prior engagement with some bandmates today."

. . . did she ever really make that clear?

High society and her line of work dictated that she serve first and ask questions never. It could be rude and downright insulting to ask questions and state your mind in a situation where your only role was to provide music. She spoke through the music instead, and only the ponies privy to how she communicated, like fellow performers, listened.

Even in a romantic relationship unrelated to performance, Viola found it uncomfortable to voice things frankly. As evidenced by her current state, that strategy obviously didn't work, and it might not ever work with somepony like Buffy. Octavia was a good friend of many, many years, so she more-or-less knew what she was thinking and could easily read her music for hidden subtleties. Buffy, having known her for less time, and for being, well, Buffy . . . not so much.

Octavia, as ever, read her mind again. "I take it by your silence that you didn't?"

"I . . . No," Viola conceded. Was that it? Could they have avoided this whole mess if she had simply told Buffy how she felt before her envy grew out of control? If Buffy had simply asked or she had simply told? "Is this all just a misunderstanding?" she mused aloud.

Octavia took another sip of tea and suppressed a yawn. "Again, I really don't know, Viola. You know your relationship better than I do. But if it really is that simple, I don't want you to throw away your love over a misunderstanding. Maybe you've both made some mistakes." Then she asked solemnly, "But can you forgive Buffy for hers?"

It was such a simple question, but it resurfaced so many memories. Because she trusted her mother once, and when she broke it, it took nigh on a decade for Viola to finally forgive her. Trust, especially when it came to her, was hard to give. Even harder when it was already broken once.

Then again, this breach, if it could even be called one, was partially her fault. To hold against her marefriend something that she did and make them both miserable in the process was not kind or honest. It was bitter.

"I want to, Octavia. I know I still love her, and I guess she does too, but . . . what if I'm wrong? What if she doesn't listen, and what if she lets me down again?" Viola looked to her friend with frightened eyes, pleading for her to give her an answer.

There were, of course, no easy answers. Octavia only shook her head and opened her hooves for another hug. Once Viola was in her embrace again, she murmured, "Then you have friends to help you back up."

7. Restitution

Viola stood in the doorway, mouth agape, staring at the once modest but tidy kitchen. The sink was piled high with dirty dishes that formed a precarious tower and flooded out onto the countertops. Every flat surface seemed to have a light dusting of flour, including the floor. A variety of scents hit Viola's nose at once, only a few of which were pleasant. As Viola took in the scene, she squinted at the ceiling where there appeared to be some splatters of icing.

Underneath the splatter stood Buffy, her back to Viola, running a mixer without a top and thereby letting batter spray across the counter. So as to avoid getting splattered with goop herself, she stayed in the doorway until Buffy turned off the mixer. And once she did . . .

"Ahem."

Buffy turned around and froze, staring at Viola for a moment, flour in her fur and drops of batter splattered across her face, withers, and even her hindquarters. On her part, Viola had an inscrutable look on her face, observing ground zero without even hinting a grin or a frown.

"Viola!" Buffy exclaimed.

"I came to retrieve my violin," Viola said simply, though she didn't look at said instrument's case propped against a chair (which was also decorated with batter polka dots). She kept her eyes trained on Buffy and the kitchen instead. Still, she did not react, nor did she move.

"I know," Buffy responded. "I mean, I knew you'd want to come get it, but now that you're here . . ." Buffy paused, an unsure and nervous look on her face. "I-I made something for you! Well, a few somethings, really. Hold on." Buffy threw open the refrigerator door and started pulling out various items.

I wanted to make you a cake, to show you how sorry I am, and how important you are to me and how much I really do love you, but then I wasn't sure what kind you'd like best so I made a bunch of them."

Buffy shoved dishes out of the way to make way for her cakes, starting with a carrot cake, a haphazardly scribbled and poorly-spelled "Im sory" written in icing on the top. Following that was a strawberry cake, though a "strawberry-colored mound of sponge with icing" might have been a more apt descriptor. Then came a tray of cupcakes topped with berries, each one a different shape and size. Then finally came a layered chocolate cake, this one so poorly constructed that it had already fallen over sideways and leaked brown frosting everywhere.

Viola's face only remained stoic for a moment. As Buffy kept on retrieving more and more and more things which could only nominally be called "pastries," her eyes widened and her jaw dropped ever so slightly. By the time Buffy was finished, Viola's face was one of agape disbelief.

It took her several moments to come to her senses and say something, but even then, she managed only one word.

"What."

"I love you Viola! I made these for you to show you that I love you, and also kinda to distract myself from worrying about whether I'd ever see you again, but mostly to show you that I love y—no!"

Buffy scrambled to the side of the chocolate cake as it crumbled apart, finally broken by the jostling that occurred when it was taken out of the fridge. Bits of cake fell to the floor, but most of it was caught in Buffy's outstretched forelegs, covering her entire front with thick brown chocolate frosting. She stared down at the mess of cake with a look of horror as tears began welling in her eyes.

Viola's eyes flicked between the destroyed chocolate cake, the rest of the pathetic piles, and the pile of pony in front of her. Finally, she reacted. She slowly closed her mouth and shook her head. She closed her eyes and said, "Buffy."

"Y-yes?"

"I have no idea what you've been doing or what is going on right now, but I will say nothing more to you until you—wait." Viola paused and sniffed the air. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open wide, and she dashed to the oven, taking care not to slip on the batter and frosting marking the floor. She threw open the oven, and from it issued billowing clouds of black smoke. Viola opened her wings and fanned the remnant of what was probably another cake.

Once it (whatever "it" was) stopped smoking, she turned off the oven and turned around, her face now marred with a bit more annoyance than before. "As I was saying, I will say nothing more to you until you clean yourself up while I take care of this enormous mess you've made of your kitchen."

Buffy's breath hitched in her chest as tears rolled down her face. Her wide eyes moved back and forth between Viola and the burnt cake.

"Oh, no you don't," Viola started, eyes narrowing ever so slightly. "Don't you dare start crying now. I am not about to sit on the floor with you surrounded by flour and frosting and smoke, getting chocolate cake and batter on myself while we talk. You can cry and talk and give me that sad and pleading look with your big adorable eyes later. We're cleaning this up now."

Buffy blinked a few times, then nodded and slowly picked herself up.

On both pony and countertop, batter proved to be a particularly stubborn stain, as it took hours for Viola and Buffy to clean up. But once they were done, they sat at the same table they did when they had their argument, Buffy's creations sitting between them.

"They're pretty bad, aren't they?" Buffy started, breaking the silence. "I thought that if I just kept trying, one would turn out okay. But you were right Viola; I can't cook at all, and I can't bake either."

Viola breathed in and exhaled slowly. She said nothing regarding Buffy's culinary ability; the plate with a slice of her cake on it with no more than a single bite out of it told the story well enough. She sighed again.

"Buffy, I . . . appreciate what you attempted to do, but I believe both of us know that the purpose of this reunion was not to discuss your inability to cook." Her eyes flicked to her violin, propped against her chair, and back again. "I have a violin to retrieve, so be direct. What is it?"

Buffy took a deep, shaky breath, and then another, and then another, before finally speaking. "I thought a lot about what you said, and I think I understand why you were so upset. You felt ignored, like I wasn't spending enough time with you, or giving you enough of my attention. You tried to tell me, but I didn't hear you. I wasn't listening, and I should have been." Buffy's eyes were flitting around the room, but they settled on Viola as she paused.

Tears started gathering in her eyes again as she continued. "I don't want to lose you, Viola. You are so, so important to me. You're just so fascinating and brilliant and sweet. Nopony could ever replace you!"

She sniffled once, and tears started to roll down her cheeks. "If . . . the way that I am, the fact that I'm polyamorous, means you don't want to be with me, I'll underst-stand—" her last word came out in a half-sob "—but I'll never replace you, not in a million years, because there's nopony in all of Equestria I could possibly replace you with!"

As Viola listened, she turned away and covered her face with a hoof. Even as she finished and Viola responded, she kept her face covered. "Buffy . . . When you did that to me, I tried to shut you out. I tried to take you out of my life and tell myself I didn't love you anymore. But . . ." Without another word, Viola opened her saddlebags with a wing and dug into them. She retrieved a pair of clip-on earrings: one a bass clef, the other, treble.

"I couldn't."

She deposited the earrings on the table but didn't uncover her face. "Everything I saw just told me I still loved you. Even after you stopped paying attention to me, stopped looking at me, even seemed to s-stop loving me . . . I couldn't take you out of my heart."

Viola lowered her head further. "You don't know how much it hurts, Buffy. To trust somepony unconditionally, to love them with all your heart, and to know that they love you back in the same way, yet they still hurt you. It's happened before to me." Viola's words grew shaky and intonated, much unlike the steady and neutral cadence she normally spoke with. "When somepony loves you but hurts you without meaning to, it just means they can hurt you again, again without meaning to, and you just can't trust them anymore."

Finally, Viola uncovered her face and looked straight at Buffy. Her eyes were full of misery both current and past, and evidence of that misery traced rivers of tears down her face. And her eyes boiled with threatening tears, some escaping through tear tracks established, others making their own. Her countenance was weak, but her words were fierce:

"You don't know how much it hurts."

Buffy shrank back from Viola's words, ears pinned against her head. It took her a minute to respond, as she sat in silence with her eyes cast down at the pitiful attempt at a cake between them. She took a deep breath and began, her words coming out slowly.

"Why? Why are you so . . . so . . . confusing!"

Buffy's eyes shot up. Her eyes displayed a spread of conflicted emotions, but foremost among them was a frustration and desperation.

"You make this big deal of showing that you still love me, and you pull out the earrings I gave you and everything, and then you talk like I'm some sort of monster that could snap at any moment, then you get all cryptic and say I don't know what it's like to have my trust broken like it's never happened to me."

Buffy's words grew louder the longer she spoke. "It's like you're always talking in riddles, and you get mad when I can't solve them! I only knew what you were saying during my date with Azura because you got mad. I can't keep guessing! Just for once, I wish you'd plainly say what's on your mind! If you need more from me, then just tell me what you need, and I'll do it!"

Viola averted her eyes again, looking down and to the side, though she didn't cover her face, letting her tears continue to fall. A long silence passed before she said a word.

She sighed. "You may be right. Perhaps this entire argument could have been avoided if I had just told you outright that I felt you were neglecting me the moment it happened. Maybe we could have simply communicated more, and all this could be avoided." Viola turned her head a bit and looked sidelong but straight on to Buffy. "I know that is my failing. I'm sorry, Buffy."

Viola turned her eyes down once again. "I'm just trying to say that it's not that easy. It sounds so simple that talking to one another more often will make everything okay, but . . ." She paused. Then, Viola wiped her face clean of tears with a hoof and looked straight to Buffy. "Let me make this as clear as I can. You hurt me, Buffy, and it still hurts now. And no easy solution is going to make it hurt less."

"I know, I know, but..." Buffy blinked back tears of her own. "You hurt me, too. All that stuff you said about polyamory . . . I know you were angry, and I don't want to believe you really meant it that way. But you really sounded like you hated me for being polyamorous, like because I'm this way, I can only be cruel and hurtful."

Buffy sniffled, rubbing her nose. "I may not know what it's like to go through . . . whatever it was that you went through when you were little. But you don't know what it's like to have somepony attack you because of a part of yourself you have no control over."

Buffy looked down, sinking into her chair like she was deflating. "I've met a lot of other ponies who would agree with what you said that day. Who think that I'm only selfish, and that I want to take advantage of others. That I can't love, because if I could, I would choose just one."

Buffy looked back up. "I can't . . . I just can't think that way! If you were to start dating somepony else, and they made you feel really happy and special and loved like I do, I would be so happy! I would be glad to see you even happier because somepony else came into your life. It's okay if ponies don't think the same way I do, but I hate that ponies keep breaking up with me and blame it on a part of who I am. Like I just chose to be polyamorous because I wanted to hurt them, like I should just keep being punished for not being made like they were!"

Buffy clenched her eyes shut, and her tears started to fall again. "I know that I hurt you. I was stupid, and I didn't pay attention to you when I should have. And I'm really, really sorry." She opened her eyes and tried to lift her gaze before dropping it back down. "If you don't think I can give you the attention you deserve, or if you think that being with me will just be too hard, I'll understand. Having you leave me because of that would hurt a lot less than having you leave because you think I'm some s-sick, selfish monster."

Viola clenched her eyes shut, forcing a few more tears from her eyes, and launched herself at Buffy to capture her in a hug. The first hug they had since she returned. "Oh, Buffy, you terrible fool! I never hated for a moment who you were, how you were made, or what you believed in. And I do not hate you for it. How could I possibly hate the fool who made cakes in apology for what she did? Or tried to, at least.

"It's that mistake you made that I hated, that made me feel worthless." Her next words were considerably weaker and preceded by a long pause. "Although, you say and I know that I played my own part in that mistake." Viola dug her muzzle into Buffy's shoulder, muffling her words. "You just have to forgive this broken mare for having trouble forgiving you."

Buffy removed her face from Viola's fur just long enough to respond. "Of course I forgive you! I could never stay mad at you, Vi. If I have trouble forgiving anypony, it'll be me for making you feel so terrible. I never want to make you feel that way again, never ever ever!"

Viola didn't bother lifting her head. "I love you, Buffy. And I know you're trying very hard. I want things to work between us tw-three." She paused. "I promise I will tell you the moment I start feeling jealous, or sad, or nervous, or hurt."

"I love you too, Viola. I want to know the second that you feel anything but happy with me, and I promise I'm going to listen better and not get carried away anymore."

Viola moved slowly, only turning her head a little to deliver a kiss to Buffy's cheek. "Don't make promises you can't keep. For both of our sakes," she whispered.

The two mares remained in each other's embrace for hours, doing nothing but whispering apologies and promises and meaningless words to each other. All the while, Buffy's cakes remained uneaten, and Viola's violin remained unretrieved.

As it would remain for a long time.

Epilogue. The USS Buffiolazura

Music. All around them was the sound of music. Viola kept her eyes closed, bowing her violin with her hoof while simultaneously plucking strings and fingering them with a deft wing. It was a complicated piece, yet one all the more fitting because of it; she needed to show her best work while her skills were being broadcast over national radio, after all.

Buffy stood to the side, and in a rare moment, she didn't make a sound. Occasionally, however, she touched Viola's non-bowing hoof lightly to indicate she was getting too close to the microphone. And once she did that, Viola would move back a little but continue playing uninterrupted.

Viola finished with a fortissimo double bowing and a flourish of her hoof. Not even a second after she finished, however, Buffy tacked her in a crushing hug. "Oh my gosh, Vi, that was so awesome and I can't believe I didn't hear the whole thing when I was—"

In an adjoining room, Azura had a view of what was happening in Buffy and Viola's, as well as an audio controller at her hooves. She flicked a cough switch connected to their booth to mute their shenanigans and replaced their sounds with her own voice-over.

"And that, my friends, was Viola of Canterlot performing her latest piece for your listening pleasure. I said she was a virtuoso of all string instruments, didn't I? I can't imagine any of you wouldn't be impressed by that display of skill and musicality! And if you aren't, feel free to submit a complaint to EquestriaLive Radio Productions and we'll be sure that management sees it. Of course, that management is me, and the dumpster out back is the only thing that'll see it, but that's beside the point!

"But it's to my great displeasure to say that we're out of time for today. I'd like to thank Poniverse Incorporated for sponsoring our show, as well as BB, our director, for making this happen. This is Azura Peavielle of EquestriaLive, Equestria's only multi-universal radio show heard 'round Equestria and beyond, telling you to stay friendly and be kind. Have a good night, everypony!"

Another flick of a switch, and the glowing red "NOW BROADCASTING" sign above both Azura's and Buffy and Viola's recording booths turned off. Azura exited her booth only to find Buffy and Viola still in theirs, arguing about something, violin against the wall. She walked in to catch them in the middle of their conversation

"—but you're never sorry about doing that, are you?"

"Of course I am, but you're so talented and squishy and cute that I just have to—"

"Snog her as she protests while another partner of yours wouldn't mind?" Azura interrupted, a wry smile on her face.

In a split second, Buffy turned and launched herself at Azura, capturing her in a hug instead. "Of course not, Azzy, but you weren't there!"

But almost as quickly, Buffy froze in place, with her hooves wrapped around Azura but her face locked in a pensive look. Slowly, she turned to Viola, still on the ground, supine, but not in a hug. "You don't mind, do you, Vi?" she asked.

As Viola got to her feet and brushed herself off, she was wearing a small but rare and unsolicited smile. Not of awkward embarrassment or infectious delight from Buffy's machinations, but of simple and humble gratitude. She shook her head in a subtle but clear motion. "But I'm next, Buffy."

"Oooh!" Buffy redoubled her hug with Azura and said, "More hugs for me and you and everypony!"

"So, I heard you two had an argument, huh?" Azura asked.

"Yeah, maybe a small one," Buffy replied while rolling the two of them over. "But we've worked it all out, right, Viola?"

"If that's what you call a 'small' argument, I don't want to be there when you have a large one," Viola said. "But yes. Mostly."

Mostly?" Azura raised an eyebrow. "Eh, I'll talk with you guys about it later," she said while pushing Buffy's hooves away and getting up. "I've got some sign-out sheets and other boring documentation to finish before we can leave, so you two don't break anything while you're in here, yeah? Stuff's expensive. I'll be in the mixing room if you need me; just knock." And with that, Azura strode out of the door and let it swing back closed.

Both ponies kept looking at the door for a few moments before either of them talked. "So you don't hate Azura anymore?" Buffy asked hopefully.

Viola's face twisted into a grimace for just a moment. "Hate is a bit of a strong word. I don't know yet, especially when we haven't even had a decent conversation as friends yet, let alone lovers." Viola rubbed at her breastbone. She stopped suddenly and looked down at her hoof, then back up. She put her hoof down, and her next words were more halting. "Ah, to tell you the truth, Buffy, I am a bit nervous about that part. I don't know if she and I would get along like you and I do."

Buffy's mouth morphed into a large "O." She closed her mouth and said, "Oh, that's okay, Vi. You don't need to love love each other. I just don't want my two bestest partners in the world to not like each other. Maybe the two of you should go on your own friendly date sometime, so you can get to know each other better." She stepped forward and gave Viola a gentle hug. "Thanks for telling me, Vi."

Buffy and Viola remained in their hug as the door opened again. "Aaaand, done!" Azura announced at the doorway. "We're free to go. I got the rest of the day off, so you want to do anything today?"

Buffy's voice was muffled by plenty of fur and wing. "Hug?" she suggested.

Azura chuckled and snaked her way into the hug, making it a three-way. "There are so many hours left in the day, Buffy. You seriously suggesting we waste the rest of the day away just hugging? There has to be more than that."

"Make out?" she suggested next.

Viola made a sound from her throat not unlike that of a pony throwing up. "B-Buffy! You cannot be serious!" she chastised in a hushed whisper. "That's not a meet thing to say in good company, let alone here! There are ponies still working here, and they might hear what we're doing. You would suggest that we—" She attempted to break the hug and stand up, but both Buffy and Azura kept her hooves tight.

"Hate to break it to you, Viola, but the booths are pretty well soundproofed," Azura said. "They lock from the inside, too."

"Oh, and there are fluffy blankets hanging on the wall over there! Is that what they're for?" Buffy said.

"Nah, that's for echo reduction. But I mean, they're pretty multipurpose. Probably wouldn't be the first time somepony's done that." Azura coughed. "I may have also accidentally booked these rooms for three hours instead of two."

Save the two ponies in the room with her, there was nopony else to hear what Viola said next.

"Azura‼"