Author's Note

Surprise! Early Chapter!
Hope you like it!

The Afterglow

Chapter Nine: The Afterglow

I woke up completely reborn.

Renewed, even. Some ponies say that every time we wake up, we wake up as a new pony. Perhaps, perhaps. But, aside from the inner renewal, there was outward stability in my hooves. And it was quite literally in my hooves. And it was a she.

It was Vinyl Scratch.

My stability muttered something in her sleep and clung to me, nuzzling into my neck. I gulped, seeing as her horn was painfully close to my cheek. One must be careful when sleeping with unicorns.

Why was I sleeping with a unicorn again?

My blood ran cold as I remembered the events of the previous night. We had… Our first time, the time that was supposed to be special, fantastic, magical, had turned out to be magical only in the form of a magical cock Vinyl had rutted me with. Pardon my wording.

The little pony in my head sat on her flank, her ears drooping. I thought we’d have wine and roses and then have a magical night under the moonlight… I sighed and withdrew my hooves from the white mare. So did I, little pony. So did I.

Feeling the lack of my hooves, Vinyl opened her eyes, looking into mine with those deep pools of magenta. “Hey, beauti-”

“Vinyl, if you say, ‘hey, beautiful’, I will rape you with a rusty spear,” I warned, not even able to manage a smile. With that, I sat up in bed, leaning my back against the wall in an uncomfortable position.

“Hey, sexy,” Vinyl quickly amended with a smile - not her usual grin, but a beautiful, radiant smile. “How was your night?”

“Oh, you know.” I narrowed my eyes slightly. “Being rutted by a fake stallionhood, filled with magical semen… The usual, Vinyl, the usual.”

“Huh, about that-,” she started, but I quickly shoved my hoof in her muzzle.

“If you’re just telling me now that I can be pregnant, I’m murdering you with a stick.”

Vinyl scratched her head. “Actually, I wanted to tell you that, while I was in heat, I wasn’t dumb and added some dampeners on the spell to prevent exactly that. The magic semen in your womb should already be gone by now.”

I sighed in defeat. Apparently, I was running out of my sigh-limit for today, and it was only morning. “Thank you at least for that, Vinyl.”

Suddenly, I felt Vinyl’s tender hoof around my neck. “Look.” The mare started to caress my shoulder with her hoof, and I would be lying if I said it wasn’t pleasant. “I understand, Tavi. I may be dumb, but I am not an idiot. I do realise that you wanted our first time to be special...“

“Yes I did!” I almost cried. Okay, maybe I did cry. Just a little. “I wanted us to have a romantic dinner, with candles, and, and bask in moonlight while we devoured each other like hungry wild birds fighting for prey at sunset.”

Vinyl’s eyes widened a little. “Okay. You, uh, certainly know your way about metaphors. Similes. Whatever.” She rubbed her forehead with her free hoof. “What I mean is, we can totally do the wild birds stuff, and dinner, and basking in moonlight. That wasn’t really our first time, was it?”

I looked at her in surprise, prompting her silently to elaborate.

“Well, we had to break our heat,” Vinyl explained. “Otherwise it would be impossible for us to think clearly. It would be impossible to have a romantic dinner, or just go for a walk, or… you know.” I could swear I saw a faint blush on her white cheeks for a split-second. “But now we don’t have to rush anything. We can go at our own pace.”

I deadpanned. “You do realize, that our heat wouldn’t have hindered us for more than four, perhaps five days at most?”

“And now we have that many more days to enjoy,” Vinyl chuckled back.

I giggled. “You know, you’re probably right.” Suddenly, I didn’t feel that pained any more. “So… How do you think we should spend these days, hmm?” Without thinking, I traced her chin with my hoof.

“I vote for candlelight dinner, some swimming and sweet, juicy sex under the moonlight,” Vinyl purred, her eyes closing upon contact with my hoof.

“Mmm,” I purred back, enjoying the conversation, and the effect my hoof was having on my marefriend. “You would really want that, wouldn’t you~” I leant in, my lips against her ear as I whispered, “Don’t worry, I want it even more.”

“Can we have a quickie?” Vinyl begged, her hooves wrapping around my neck possessively. “Just a quick in-and-out. My tongue will be out before you even notice it!”

I laughed. “What’s the point of sex then? No, my dear Vinyl…” I nuzzled her cheek affectionately. “I want to feel every single movement of your daring tongue~”

Vinyl sighed, leaning into my embrace. “I can’t wait for that dinner…”

“Neither can I, dear,” I assured her, hugging her tighter, holding her close. Here she was, a tired (retired?) hunter in the embrace of her mi- no, no, such thoughts were not acceptable. The little pony in my head nodded. I had to keep that side of me to myself. “But it’s only morning.”

“Actually,” Vinyl mumbled from the direction of my chest, “it’s already afternoon.” I glanced at the clock. Indeed, it was well past midday. Apparently, the night’s activities had left us pretty worn-out. “Can we have an early dinner?”

I smiled. “Yes we can. But no earlier than six in the evening. I am not hungry yet.”

“I am.” Vinyl licked her lips. “If you know what I mean.”

“Yes, Vinyl, I know.” I deadpanned. “But I put another meaning of the words ‘eat out’.” I pondered. “At least until the evening, that is.”

Vinyl’s ears perked up. “Sooo… Who’s eating out whom?”

“Oh, Vinyl~” I cooed, tickling my marefriend’s chin with a hoof. “I am sure we can arrange that.”

Vinyl pouted. “Can we arrange that now? Pretty please?”

I sighed. “No, Vinyl.”

“Pretty please with a cherry on top?”

“I’ll shove that cherry right up your muzzle Vinyl, don’t push it,” I growled, losing patience.

“Please do,” the incorrigible mare replied. “I would love your cherry next to my muzzle.”

I wanted to slap the living daylights out of that mare, but couldn’t help but snicker. She was… something. She wasn’t especially nice, but she was… something else, really. She was driving me insane, but she was mine. “Vinyl, if you want to get my, erm, ‘cherry’, you’ll have to be nice and wait until after dinner. Remember, you’re the one who promised to make it special for me.”

“Is it not special to have your cherry at my muzzle?” she asked before whimpering as I raised my hoof. “Sorry!”

“Now,” I smiled radiantly, “be a dear and give me my towel? I need to take a shower.”

While my smile grew more and more, hers faded. “Alone?”

“Vinyl, if we have sex now, we won’t enjoy it later.”

She smirked at me. “We can enjoy it now and later?”

I must admit, it was tempting. Very, very tempting. But I couldn’t give in to such thoughts. We had a romantic dinner ahead of us, and a romantic night under the stars, not just some quick rut in the bathroom. Like the night before.

“No. You stay here and be nice,” I replied in a stern voice. “I’m going to go and enjoy a nice shower.”

“Can I really not join in?”

Again, did I mention how tempting it was? But no, a lady should have her standards, and I have mine, so this time, Vinyl was going to be turned down. “No, Vinyl, you cannot. Because we both know what will happen if you do.”

Vinyl pouted, bringing out the puppy eyes. “But I’ll just wash your back…”

I sighed and shook my head. “Vinyl, no. Again, don’t make this difficult, for both of us.” With that, I departed to the shower.

Closing the door behind me, I decided to lock it, just to be on the safe side. Then a thought struck me: why hadn’t I ever thought of locking the bathroom door before?! The little pony in my head facehooved and mouthed, Because Vinyl can just open it again with her magic.

Which led me to the idea to install a magicproof lock back in my flat when Vinyl moved in with me.

Wait.

Wait a minute.

I blinked as I entered the cubicle. Why was I thinking about Vinyl moving in with me? We hadn’t even had se- The little pony in my head tapped her hoof impatiently against the back of my head. It hurt. Metaphorically, but it hurt. I pondered if I was slipping into madness. Okay, we had had sex before, but it hadn’t been proper sex. And it wasn’t time to speculate on Vinyl moving in with me!

Hell, I didn’t even let her into the shower with me! Longingly, I cast a glance at the bathroom door. But it seemed that Vinyl was sitting on the bed, steadfast in her resolve to let me shower alone. I sighed and decided to make it quick.

Quick, meaning I would do everything a bit faster, from shampooing my coat, mane and tail, and applying various conditioners I had brought from home. After last night, I wanted to look and feel like a lady again, not a whore. The little pony in my head crashed to the ground. Okay, not a whore.

It felt marvelous to get the sweat and… other things out of my coat, and I even lingered for several moments more, just enjoying the warmth before a knock on the door interrupted me.

“Tavi? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I yelled back and sighed. Time to wrap it up.

When I stopped the water and stepped out the shower to dry my mane, tail and coat, I noticed that the door was still closed, thankfully. Rubbing my coat to a less damp state, I wrapped two towels around my mane and tail quickly. A small trick my mother taught me, to just spin around the towel. After all, I had no magic.

I opened the door and stepped out, and nearly tumbled over Vinyl. “Did you just sit there the whole time I was in the shower?” She just looked at me, muzzle slightly open. “Hello? Are you there? Stop drooling at me, it's rude!”

She snapped her muzzle shut and blinked, then took a glance at the clock. “Five? You took nearly two hours for a simple shower! What the buck where you doing in there?!” Then her face slipped into a wide grin. “Wait… Were you thinking of me and-”

“No, Vinyl.” I almost slapped her. Almost. After all, it would all come that evening… No, bad Octavia! Not thinking such thoughts about Vinyl. We had a romantic time ahead of us. Ro-man-tic. “Okay, partly. I wasn’t, you know, what you are implying. But I was indeed thinking of you.”

Vinyl blinked in return. “Really? So…” She looked aside and drew a circle on the floor with her hoof. It was weird, seeing my usually bold marefriend so flustered. “What exactly were you thinking? If it’s not a secret?”

“I…” I really wanted to say that it was none of her business. But then again, it was her business. I was her business, and she was my business. So I replied, “I just thought I should invest in a magicproof lock. You know, just so, when we decide to live together, you won’t interrupt my every shower.”

She hummed before chuckling. “If we live together, I think there won’t be any locks needed anymore?”

I wanted to simultaneously kiss her and hit her. A lot.

***

Boring

“And you simply have to accompany me on my rehearsals, so you get a taste of refined music!”

So boring…

“I love to play the Cello, but I can play pretty much every classical instrument.”

Bor--zzzzzzz The little pony in my head delivered me a good smack. I’m listening, I’m listening!

“I can’t wait to see how life will be. We can meet after our work and have a nice dinner, or go to the movies, yes! I have a member card which I always use on the classical nights thursdays!”

Dinner… DINNER! I looked at the clock and grinned. “It’s six.”

“And then we could just enjoy the nicest piece of-” she stopped and looked at me as if I were a ghost. “Excuse me, what did you say my dear?”

“I said it’s six,” I repeated with the same grin.

“Oh,” she looked crestfallen, but quickly recovered. “So I guess it is time for the promised dinner?”

I just nodded, eager to get going, but she waved a hoof to silence me as I opened my muzzle.

“Wait, Vinyl. I still have to dress up! It will only take a minute,” she said, grabbing something from her bags. “Or an hour,” she added as she shook her flank at me with a slight wink.

I practically drooled after her as she quickly sauntered into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. “And no peeking, Vinyl!”

Growling internally, I made myself comfortable and waited as the seconds passed. The sound of a zipper being closed, then a loud curse.

“Tavi? Are you alright?”

“Yes, I am. Please, be a dear and fetch that black bag for me. You should find some of my jewelry in there,” she called back.

I was more than happy to oblige. Going over to her bags, however, I frowned. There was not one black bag. There also weren’t two black bags. There were four damn black bags in all sizes and forms.

“Uh, Tavi?” I yelled. “Which bag? You got more than one here.”

“The smallest one.”

Maybe I was size-blind, but there were two small bags of the same size. Shrugging, I opened the one that invited me more, a black leather bag that could’ve gone through as a big purse, and dived into it.

Jewelry? Where is the jewelry? All that is in here are boxes. The small pony in my head pointed at a flat square box in the corner of the bag. Oh, yes. This looks like it contains expensive jewelry.

Pulling the box out, I hesitated. It was light, and covered in finest silk, yet something was wrong. Open it! The little pony danced.

I regretted it the instant the box was open. Inside was a collar, big enough for a pony to wear. It seemed to be made out of leather, a small ring attached to its front with a nameplate. As I read it, the little pony in my head fainted.

Pet