Chapters Walking down the street, Octavia Philharmonica quietly hummed a tune to herself as she approached the small home in Ponyville that she shared with her loving marefriend, Vinyl Scratch. When she got to the door, she paused for a second as a sound that could only be described as a duck being strangled assaulted her ears. Worried, she quickly unlocked the door and stepped inside, where her blood froze with horror at what she saw.
In front of her, Vinyl was holding her prized cello up with one hoof while she clumsily attempted to guide the bow across the strings with the other. That was not the sight that made her hair stand on edge, however. The thing that made her do that were the several faint, yet still clearly visible, scratches that adorned her prized possession. As she stood there with a lower jaw that was practically on the ground and pupils the size of pinheads, Vinyl finally noticed her standing in the doorway.
“Oh, hey Octy. How was your day?” Vinyl cheerfully asked, blissfully unaware of the hurricane of sound that was about to assault her eardrums.
Octavia took a deep breath before answering, trying to get a hold of her rising fury. “It was fine, nothing too special. Rainbow Dash wanted me to say hi.”
“I’m glad to hear from Rainbow. I haven’t seen her in a while, which is kinda weird, since we’ve been friends for, like, ever.”
“Uh-huh. Hey, Vinyl, I was wondering if you could answer something for me.”
“OK. Shoot.” Vinyl would regret that choice of words instantly as Octavia’s rage finally boiled over.
“Well, I was wondering what you’re doing with my cello and why THERE ARE SCRATCHES ALL OVER IT!?”
Vinyl Scratch, the DJ who had seen it all in the rowdy clubs she usually played at, suddenly found her ears flattened to her skull as terror worse than any she had felt in all her years performing in front of rowdy, drunken crowds gripped her heart in its icy tendrils.
“W-w-well Octy, I really wasn’t planning on telling you this now, but I was trying to learn the cello so I could play your favorite songs as a kind of surprise for you,” Vinyl weakly answered while praying to Celestia this would be enough to appease the angry mare before her. Unfortunately, that would not be the case.
“Oh, it’s certainly a surprise to me, Vinyl,” Octavia snapped back at her as she quickly snatched her precious instrument from the grasp of the white unicorn before her. “In fact, it’s such a surprise that I think I need to move out for a little while to process it!”
At that comment, Vinyl’s world seemed to stop. Move out? Octavia couldn’t be serious. They’d been dating for almost a year now, and living together for about six months. Vinyl couldn’t imagine living by herself anymore, and she was sure that Octavia felt the same way. But yet, she said she was leaving. Vinyl’s mind became a haze of confused thoughts and emotions, always settling on the same phrase: “She can’t be serious…right?”
Vinyl was so caught up in these thoughts that she almost didn’t notice that Octavia had packed all of her things in a suitcase and was starting out the door until it was too late. When the DJ saw this, she rushed for the door, hoping she could get the mare she loved to stay.
“Octy, wait!” she desperately shouted. “Please don’t-“
The rest of her sentence was cut off by the door slamming in her face. “-leave me,” she miserably finished.
With A Little Help From My Friend
The next few days passed quickly for the cellist. Seeing as she lived at Vinyl’s place and didn’t own an apartment of her own anymore, she decided to ask her fillyhood friend Rarity for a place to stay. As expected, the Element of Generosity welcomed her into the guest bedroom at the boutique with open arms, saying she could stay there as long as she needed. The resident fashionista of Ponyville, however, was starting to get worried about her longtime friend. Octavia rarely left the room she had been given except to get meals, and even then it was only for a few minutes. What was the most troublesome, however, was the fact that the gray mare never spoke unless spoken to first, and even then it was usually just one or two word answers. On the fourth day of her stay, Rarity decided it was time to talk to the musician about the issues she was having with her recent breakup.
Octavia was sitting on her bed, staring at her deformed cello, just like she had done for the past four days. A quiet knock broke her out of her trance as Rarity’s head suddenly entered the room.
“Hello darling. How are you doing today?”
“Fine, I suppose.”
“Well, that’s…good to hear. Do you mind if I talk with you for a minute or so?”
All Octavia did was shrug as she replied “I guess not,” in a monotone voice.
The designer slowly made her way to the bed and sat down next to her friend, trying to think of the best way to start the conversation. It only took her a few seconds to decide that being blunt and to the point would be best in this situation.
“Octavia,” she cautiously started, “I’m worried about you.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
“Well, you barely talk anymore, you almost never come out of this room, and whenever I check in on you, the only thing you ever do is stare at that cello.” Rarity quickly responded, with a slight tinge of desperation in her voice. “Would you be willing to talk to me a little bit about your situation with Vinyl?” While Rarity knew the basics from when Octavia came to her, she knew there was much she was not told.
All Octavia did was sit there for a moment, before tears began forming at the corners of her eyes and she answered, “What is there to talk about? She’s a silly mare who thought that it would be ok to scratch up my cello just so she could learn to play for herself, even though I expressly told her not to touch it!” The cellist’s voice began to take on an angry tone before she finished her mini-rant. “And do you know what the worst part is, Rarity? The worst part is that she thought I would believe that she only did it to surprise me.”
Rarity’s interest was quickly caught at this statement, causing her ears to perk up as she quickly turned to her lifelong friend.
“What was that dear?” she asked. “Repeat to me exactly what she said to you.”
“All I remember her saying is that she was trying to learn the cello so she could play me my favorite songs as a surprise. I can’t believe she thought I would believe that story. I know she wouldn’t put that much work into something as complex as learning to play the cello in secret.”
When Octavia finished speaking, both mares sat in silence, one still slightly fuming and the other thinking as fast as she could. As Rarity kept thinking about what Octavia had said, her eyes widened as a horrible realization came to her mind. Turning so she faced the other mare once again, the designer slowly spoke.
“Um…Octavia darling, I don’t mean to upset you any more than you already are, but I think Miss Scratch was telling the truth. From the way you have described the situation to me, I am positive that she really was trying to learn how to play your cello, with a few…unfortunate side effects.”
After Rarity said this, Octavia stared at the damaged instrument, wondering if she had been wrong. Looking at the gouges in the wood of her cello a little more, something she had been desperately trying to avoid doing before, she noticed that the length and depth of the marks suggested someone trying to play a rather complicated piece, not someone just playing random notes, which she didn’t expect. Realization slowly dawned on her that perhaps she had slightly overreacted to the whole ordeal and was solely the one in the wrong.
As tears began to form once again, she looked at her friend and quietly said “You’re right Rarity. I’m such an idiot. I probably ruined the best relationship I’ve ever had because of a stupid piece of wood. Vinyl’s probably moved on already too. It would probably be best if I tried to stay away from her and tried to move on.”
The romantic in Rarity, while still slightly shocked at the way Octavia had just insulted her prized cello, quickly picked up on the mare’s depressed attitude and would have none of it.
“Octavia, shush. I will not have such negative talk under this roof. Yes, you did overreact and yes, it is possible Vinyl has moved on, but you will never know until you find out yourself. In fact, I know the perfect way of finding out. Vinyl Scratch is having a show tonight at Spiked Punch, Berry Punch’s bar, and I think that would be the perfect way to determine where your relationship stands. My suggestion is that you go to the show tonight, apologize to her, and see what she says.”
All Octavia had to say as she quietly sniffled away the last of her tears was, “Thank you Rarity. That is wonderful advice. Now, if you would excuse me, I need to get ready to hit the club tonight.”
Lonesome Tears in My Eyes
“Octy, wait!” Vinyl desperately shouted. “Please don’t-“
The rest of her sentence was cut off by the door slamming in her face. “-leave me,” she miserably finished.
After being cut off in such a way by her possibly ex-marefriend, the only thing Vinyl Scratch could think to do was to sit rooted to her spot and stare at the door. It was like her brain had decided to shut off, causing all motor functions to cease and making her only thought ‘She’s actually gone .’
Vinyl sat there for what only felt like five minutes. The fact that she was actually in the same spot for the past hour meant nothing to her. In fact, nothing at all meant anything to her at that moment, because she had let the love of her life walk out the door without so much as a backwards glance. Eventually, though, even she could not deny the dryness in her throat and dejectedly trudged her way to the kitchen to get a glass of water. As she slowly drained the glass, the usually carefree DJ gazed at everything in the kitchen, remembering all of the happy moments that took place in the room.
Over there was the oven, where Vinyl had almost burned the house down as a result of the first time she tried to cook something for Octavia.
Looking at the fridge, she remembered the day Octy had moved in, throwing out all of the junk food in there, proclaiming that “From now on, we will have plenty of fruits and vegetables in here, and no more of that awful food you were eating before.”
A glance at the table revealed all of the memories of the two mares just sitting there, talking for hours on end. It wasn’t usually about anything other than gossip around the town, but it was always one of the favorite parts of Vinyl’s day.
All of these memories proved to be too much for the depressed mare’s fragile mind, so she quickly made her way to the living room. This proved to be of little help, as Octavia’s recent departure forced her to quickly leave this room as well. Moving down the hallway in a daze, Vinyl eventually found herself in the bedroom. This was where she was hit with her final memory, one that almost brought her to her knees in grief.
There was the bed the two mares had been sharing for the past six months, where they had shared countless hours of pillow talk before falling asleep in each other’s arms, only to be greeted by the smiling face of their lover the next morning.
That was the straw the finally broke the camel’s back. Not caring about the now painful memories associated with it, Vinyl Scratch slowly climbed on top of the bed and cried.
Several days later, Rainbow Dash found herself in front of her friend’s door. Nopony had seen the charismatic DJ in several days, and she was starting to get worried. Having heard the basic story about the breakup from Rarity, it was clear that somepony needed to check on Vinyl Scratch. Taking a deep breath, Rainbow tapped the door a few times with her hoof while calling “Vinyl? You in there?”
Dash was greeted with silence. After waiting a few minutes to make sure Vinyl wasn’t just slow getting to the door, she got the spare key hidden under a fake rock, letting herself in. The first thing she noticed was the amount of empty bottles on the floor. Worried, Dash stepped further into the house, accidentally kicking one of the bottles, sending it clinking into another bottle further into the room. Making her way carefully around the bottles so she didn’t step on any, Rainbow Dash slowly checked each room of the house looking for a sign of her friend. The search yielded no results, and eventually she only had one room left to check; the bedroom.
Rainbow slowly peered around into the room, and saw a scene that she would likely never forget. Vinyl Scratch, the tough, happy-go-lucky DJ of Ponyville, was laying on the bed staring at the wall. Her mane and coat looked like they hadn’t been combed or even cleaned for several days, giving her the look of a pony who had nothing left to live for. In addition to this, the white unicorn’s eyes were as bloodshot as Dash had ever seen them, making her look like she had pink eyes with red irises. Vinyl turned her head as she noticed Rainbow Dash walk into the room.
“Hey Dash. How’s it hanging?” Vinyl hoarsely croaked out.
While clueless was a word that could usually be used to describe Rainbow Dash when it came to the emotions of other ponies, even she could pick up on the fact that her friend was in a tough place emotionally and decided to drop the bravado and cockiness that she usually employed when talking to other ponies, instead deciding to play the role of caring friend.
“I’m doing alright. I think I should be asking how you’re doing though. Rarity told me what she knew about the situation with you and Octavia, but it wasn’t very much.”
“What, me? Pfft, I’m perfectly fine, see?” Vinyl tried to flash her concerned friend a smile that was happy and carefree. Instead, it came out as a pained grimace, which Rainbow immediately caught.
“Really? It seems to me like you’re anything but fine,” Rainbow retorted. “By the way, what the hay was with all of the empty bottles out there Vinyl? I thought you gave up drinking so much.”
At that statement, Vinyl gave a morbid chuckle. “Yeah, that was pretty dumb of me. I thought I could drink so much I would stop thinking about her. Instead, all it gave me was a really bad hangover the next morning. I decided to give up on that plan shortly afterward.”
“Well, I’m glad you at least learned your lesson. I’m serious though, Vinyl. I’m worried about you. Can you please talk to me about what’s going on?”
“It’s stupid and mushy. You’d probably laugh at me for being uncool.”
Dash was hurt at this statement. “Vinyl, you know I wouldn’t do that,” she gently replied. “It’s obvious to me that you’re hurting, and I just want to help.”
“Fine. I’ll tell you. Me and Octavia have been dating for almost a year now. Well, I decided that, as a surprise to her, I was gonna learn how to play some songs for her on the cello for our anniversary. A few days ago, she walked in on me practicing. That probably wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, but I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing and managed to scratch up her cello pretty bad. That was when she flipped out and left.” Vinyl paused for a moment before shakily adding, “I just miss her so much.”
Rainbow Dash responded to Vinyl’s story by gently hugging the mare and letting her sob on her shoulder as the floodgates finally broke open. After several minutes, the DJ’s crying turned into quiet sniffles, and Rainbow spoke up after a minute.
“Look, Vinyl, I realize you miss her, but thinking about her constantly is tearing you apart. You need to get your mind off of her for a little while. In fact, you have a show booked tonight at Spiked Punch. I suggest you go and see if doing a show helps you out at all.”
“You’re right Dash. I completely forgot about the show. What time is it at?”
“I think it’s at seven.”
“OK, and it is…SWEET CELESTIA, IT’S SIX FOURTY-FIVE!”
“Ah horseapples, you’re gonna have to skip the shower then. I’ll go grab your records.”
As Rainbow was going to leave for where she knew Vinyl kept her records for her shows, the white DJ trotted over to the closet and threw it open.
“Forget about that Rainbow, I don’t need ‘em!”
“Really? Why’s that?”
Vinyl emerged from the closet with a box labeled ‘Vinyl and Octy’s Jams’. “Because,” she said, “I’m gonna try something new tonight.”
Octavia sat at the bar, sipping at a glass of surprisingly good pinot noir, waiting for DJ PON-3 to take the stage. Seeing she only had a minute or so before the show started, Octavia downed the last few sips of her wine and turned her stool towards the stage, waiting for the start of the music with a small sense of dread. While she had certainly grown to appreciate the music of the mare she had dated for close to a year, dubstep and electronic music in general was still not completely embraced by the slightly stuffy mare from Canterlot. Suddenly, the lights dimmed and a familiar intro track started as the announcer for the night yelled into his mike, “All right everypony, it’s the time you’ve all been waiting for. Put your hooves together for DJ PON-3!” A white unicorn trotted on stage and Octavia gave a barely audible gasp as she looked at her. She could tell it was Vinyl, but she was shocked at just how different she looked. The main feature she noticed right away was the fact that the DJ’s mane and coat looked as if they hadn’t seen a comb in several days. The other major thing she noticed was that, when Vinyl lifted up her trademark sunglasses to look at the crowd, she could see that they were red and bloodshot, as if she had been crying for several days. Octavia’s guilt about her overreaction only grew worse as she looked at the white mare in front of her, realizing she had done this to her. A small part of her felt a small sense of happiness, though, when she noted that Vinyl’s condition must be because she was taking the breakup just as hard as her.
After gazing at the crowd for a few moments, the purple sunglasses slowly settled back onto their owner’s nose as she slowly spoke in a voice that sounded like it had either been forced to gargle sand or had been cried raw.
“Hey everypony, how you doin’ tonight? My name is Vinyl Scratch, aka DJ PON-3 and I will be your entertainment tonight. Before I begin, I would like to dedicate this show to a very special mare named Octavia Philharmonica. I know we’re going through a rough patch right now, but I hope with all of my heart that we can work it out. It has been about a year since I first earned the privilege of calling you my marefriend, and I just want you to know that it has been the happiest year of my life. I would spend the rest of my life with you if you would have me. This one goes out to you, baby. If you’re here, I hope you enjoy the show.”
After that, Vinyl flipped a switch on her deck and the first song of the night began. However, it wasn’t like the rowdy and fast songs she usually picked. This one began slow, with a small dubstep line gradually growing louder, until, suddenly, the distinct sound of a cello was heard coming out of the speakers. Octavia was so shocked by this that she didn’t even notice that it was a recording of one of her songs until the track was almost halfway done. After she realized this, she just sat there on her stool, entranced by the sound of the music. In what seemed like a matter of minutes though, Vinyl was announcing that this was the last song, where she played her most stirring track yet. It was a recording that the two mares had recorded together one night, as an experiment. The sound of the two of them playing merged beautifully together, and the gray cellist found herself slowly walking towards the stage. She also found she couldn’t tear her gaze away from the beautiful white mare currently controlling the music. Her heart, which was beating at what felt like a mile a minute, tried to jump out of her chest when the DJ finally noticed her slowly walking up to the stage. After a minute of staring at each other, Octavia broke into a sprint and jumped onstage right as the song ended, engaging the unicorn she loved in a passionate kiss. As they pulled away from each other, the crowd started giving the loudest applause ever heard in the history of the bar, happy that the two lovers had finally reunited.
Octavia was the first to speak up, fighting back tears as she talked to her marefriend for the first time in almost five days, the sound of the crowd fading as they stood in their own personal world. “Vinyl Scratch, before you say anything, I want you to know you have nothing to be sorry for. I overreacted to a few scratches in a lousy hunk of wood and almost lost what truly matters to me: you. Promise me you won’t beat yourself up for something that was completely my fault.”
At first, Vinyl had the same shocked look on her face that Rarity had when Octavia talked about her cello in such a disrespectful way. She quickly got over her shock enough to say, “You do know you’re talking about your prized cello, right?”
“Of course I am, silly. However, I also realized it's just a piece of wood that can make music come out of it. In fact, I think I might even keep your…decorations on it. I need some way to make it unique, after all. Now, what about that promise I just asked you about?”
“Huh? Oh yeah, I remember which one you’re talking about now. I’ll agree to not blame myself for anything if you promise me something in return.”
This statement caught Octavia’s interest. “I’m all ears, Vinyl.”
Vinyl Scratch nervously cleared her throat before continuing. “Ok. Before I ask you your promise, I wanna say something first. I meant what I said before the show. The year I have spent with you has been the happiest year of my life. I really can see myself spending the rest of my life with you. So, I would like to ask you a question. Octavia Philharmonica, will you marry me and promise that you will never leave me again?”
At this point the crowd, who had heard the entire conversation, quieted instantly as they eagerly awaited the mare’s answer. You could hear a pin drop as Octavia said three words, with happy tears in her eyes.
“Yes. I promise.”
*Three Months Later*
Celestia’s sun was shining high in the sky, with not a cloud in sight, on the town square in Ponyville. Almost all of the residents of that town, as well as a large crowd from Canterlot, had packed the area to witness the marriage that was about to take place. An aisle had been cleared in the rows of seats that led from the town hall to the stage where the wedding would be officiated. Inside the town hall were the mares that everyone had gathered to see that day, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia Philharmonica. Since it was tradition that it is unlucky for the engaged to see each other before the ceremony, they were forced to wait in separate rooms while the final preparations were made. And Vinyl was not happy about it.
“This is stupid! Why do we have to do this again?” Vinyl angrily asked as Rarity tried to put the finishing touches on her electric blue mane.
“Vinyl, dear, do stand still. It’s hard enough to make your mane presentable as it is,” the fashionista tiredly said for what felt like the tenth time that day. “And for the last time, it is bad luck for the betrothed to see each other before they give their nuptials. Even you should know that.”
“Rare, there’s a difference between knowing about something and liking it,” Vinyl grumbled as Rarity finally finished with her mane.
“Yes, yes I know. I’m finally done so try not to do anything to mess up my hard work, OK? I’m going to check on Octavia now. I’ll send Rainbow Dash in so she can take care of anything else you may need,” the unicorn said over her shoulder as she exited the room to enter the one across the hall.
As soon as Rarity was gone, the rainbow-maned pegasus stepped into the room and looked at the DJ before simply asking, “You ready for this?”
Vinyl couldn’t completely hide her nervousness as she responded, “Hay yeah I am. This is gonna be the most awesome wedding Equestria has ever seen. That’s why I wanted you to be my mare of honor after all. An awesome wedding needs awesome bridesmaids.”
Rainbow gave one of her trademark cocky grins before she answered. “Buck yeah it does. By the way, that reminds me, AJ and Pinkie wanted me to thank you for having them as your other bridesmaids. It means a lot to em that you picked them even though you don’t know them that well.”
“Are you kidding me? I love those two,” Vinyl responded. “I’ve hung out with you and Applejack enough to know that she’s pretty cool. And while it is true that I don’t talk to Pinkie as much as I would like, she is one of the funnest mares I have ever met and it’s pretty epic whenever we party together.”
Both of the mares shared a good laugh at this. With her best friend in the room, Vinyl felt much more relaxed and was able to forget about her previous nervousness as she waited for the ceremony to start.
Over in the other room, Rarity was taking her mare of honor duties much more seriously than Rainbow Dash was, as she was constantly moving around Octavia, making sure every inch of her would look perfect. This attention to detail, however, would get on almost anypony’s nerves, and Octavia was no exception. After Rarity adjusted the cellist’s bowtie for the fifth time to make sure it was perfectly level, Octavia snorted and grumbled, “I think it’s fine, Rarity.”
At these words, the designer practically wilted. “But darling, you must look perfect for today. Everypony here will be looking at you and I will not have them leave saying you just looked fine,” Rarity informed her reluctant victim as she began circling her once again. “I would be the worst mare of honor ever if I let you walk out there without looking your absolute best.”
Grumbling to herself, as she had to admit her friend had a point, Octavia opted for a change of subject instead of focusing on her discomfort. “How are Twilight and Fluttershy doing?” she pleasantly asked.
Rarity almost hid the smile tugging at her lips as she recounted what Octavia’s other two bridesmaids were doing when she left. “Oh, just as well as you would expect. Fluttershy was so nervous the poor dear was practically hiding behind her mane and Twilight was reading a book called Everything You Wanted to Know about Being a Bridesmaid but Were Afraid to Ask or something like that.”
Octavia giggled as she said, “I really must thank you for introducing me to those two. Spa days with you and Fluttershy, when I could make it, have been fantastic, and Twilight is always at the library, ready to discuss a particularly good chapter in whatever I happen to be reading at the time, since she’s read every single book in there. I am truly proud to call those two my friends.”
“As am I,” Rarity simply stated while putting the finishing touches on some last minute adjustments to Octavia’s dress. In no time at all, one of the ushers opened the door and informed them that Vinyl was already making her way down the aisle and she needed to get out there. Hearing this, the white unicorn and the grey earth pony shared a quick smile with each other before making their way out the door.
The two ponies began walking down the aisle as the Canterlot Royal Symphony, whose members were all personal friends of Octavia’s, played their instruments. Octavia and Vinyl found themselves unable to look away from each other, their only thoughts being of how beautiful the other one looked. Both of them wore traditional white dresses, while their bridesmaids wore sky blue dresses. Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle stood on the left of the stage, which was Octavia’s, while Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Pinkie Pie stood on the right as Vinyl Scratch’s bridesmaids. As the cellist and her mare of honor reached the stage, the soon-to-be newlyweds shared warm smiles with each other, knowing months of preparations and stress would come to fruition in a matter of minutes. The opening words of Mayor Mare, who would be officiating the wedding, passed quickly for the two lovers and in no time at all, it was time for the two mares to give their vows.
“Mares of honor, present the rings please.” The mayor smiled as Rainbow Dash and Rarity gave the rings to their friends.
Turning to Octavia, Mayor Mare motioned for Vinyl to take her fiancee’s hoof before continuing. Clearing her throat, the white-maned pony began the most important part of the ceremony.
“Octavia Philharmonica, do you take this mare, Vinyl Scratch, to be your lawfully wedded wife, caring for her in sickness and in health, till death do you part?”
The gray mare smiled with joyous tears in her eyes. “I do.”
At that, the mayor signaled Vinyl to slip the ring onto Octavia’s hoof, which she happily did.
Once she was finished, Mayor Mare began the same procedure with the DJ.
“Vinyl Scratch, do you take this mare, Octavia Philharmonica, to be your lawfully wedded wife, caring for her in sickness and in health, till death do you part?”
“I do.” Vinyl had managed to stay dry-eyed up to this point, but couldn’t help but let a few joyous tears slide out as the ring made its way onto her hoof.
“Then by the power vested in me by Princess Celestia as mayor of this town, I pronounce you mare and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
As Vinyl Scratch and Octavia closed the distance between themselves and shared the kiss they had been waiting all day for, a feeling of pure bliss overcame both of them. As they pulled apart, the mares were greeted to deafening shouts and the pounding of hooves on the ground. Sharing a smile with each other, the newlyweds walked back down the aisle, towards a happy marriage that would last the rest of their lives.
