The Last Minute

    The last minute.

     Those last sixty seconds. The last moment in the timeline. This moment.

     It had come to mean a different thing to her, the last minute. The minute when silence would permeate the crowd, roll over them like the slow evening surf, until the last hurried whispers would too be washed into the fray. The moment when the last rows of lanterns lining the walls would flicker out, and the light cast on everything would change from honey to pitch. The moment when a hundred, a thousand minds in crimson cushioned seats, showing black in the wake of the lanterns, would quiet their buzzing, and so many eyes would swivel to a focal point, converging on the thick velvety curtain which still hung closed.

     The last thirty seconds. The moment when she would sit on a stool, nothing around her for tens of feet, and island in a polished black sea. The moment when she may work quickly and quietly, making the last tightening on her bowstring--maybe it was necessary, maybe it was not. The moment when she may run her hoof down the barrel of her instrument, feeling the polished, familiar wood blend from the neck to the belly, strong and vital, to the strings, wound tight with craftsmanship and honed with mastery over the years. The last moment when she may close her eyes, as she couldn't see in the darkness anyway, and take one deep breath, just as a little reminder.

     The last ten seconds. The moment when she may reach up, dreamlike, entranced as the seconds ticked by in heartbeats, and lightly touch the collar she wore which bore her signature and her livelihood.

     Five. One last breath in.

     Four. A breath out.

     Three. Straightening her back, lifting her bowstring.

     Two. The sound of rope sliding over rope and metal cranking over metal as the curtains parted.

     One.

     Octavia opened her eyes, the sudden yellow light on her stinging for only a moment before she blinked it away. She was blinded by the beam, seeing only the yellow glow around her, not a single feature in the black ocean before her; to anyone else, it may have seemed like an empty room. To Octavia, it was a lagoon of energy, hushed breath and rapt attention, pulsing through the walls like electricity before there was even any music.

     She felt her eyes slide closed again.

     Her bow began to move, drawing back and forth over the strings in flourishes and timeless elegance. Her hoof flew over the strings, switching between them with unparalleled finesse. She played not by sight, not by memory, but by feel.

     The vibrations of the heavy strings ran through Octavia's bow, conducting the sound and feel into her body like lightning through a rod. She bent her head slightly, tilting it over the neck before rocking back, the music swaying her as if she were a tongue of flame, dancing and rearing back and forth in passion, illuminating the blackness.

     The notes rang clear and strong, each one perfect and potent with energy. They poured out from the cello's berth, wrought from the hooves of the player, flowing silken over the crowd. No one looked away, even for a moment.

     Gradually, the music slowed, before tapering and, with one final bout of vibrato, coming to and end. The room held its breath, and Octavia's had long since left her.

     Cheers erupted from the crowd as one pony after the other sprung from his chair, whistling and clapping his hooves together. The sound pounded in Octavia's ears, still numb from her performance. She stood, bowing low and smiling, still holding her bow aloft. The curtains drew around her, and Octavia hardly noticed.

*~*~*

     The crowd was beginning to thin as ponies filed out the side doors. Octavia could hear the babble of voices from backstage, catching snippets here and there of what they thought of her piece; positive, of course, lighting her up a little more before she remembered something.

     The grey mare snapped down the lid of her cello case hastily, brushing past crew members and she took off, clopping down the side stairs from backstage to floor, and into the crowd. The river of ponies split around her, some walking past her to the door, some pausing to smile and congratulate Octavia on yet another great show, to which she replied absently as she craned her neck to look over the mass of heads.

     Shaggy brown hair, orange hair in a knot, light blue-locked unicorn, oh, a tophat; Octavia flicked from pony to pony, scanning, hawklike, for the mane that would be a dead giveaway of the pony she was looking for in the shuffling crowd.

     Pink, yellow, grey, red, cerise. Color after color of mane on pony after infinite pony, and not one had the trademark choppy-streaked mane after which she sought. Not even a measly little pair of reflective purple glasses.

     Accepting defeat, Octavia retreated through the wave of ponies, stepping back up the little flight of stairs, hardly noticing how much more lackluster her hooffalls were now. The backstage flat, hung with ropes that did strange things and a half of a theater set and a light table, seemed deserted. Most of the crew had clocked out by now, leaving only the grey musician and the broom-pushing evening cleanup stallion.

     "Evenin', Miss Octavia." He greeted, tipping an imaginary hat in the chipper way that he usually did. When the mare didn't reply, the stallion paused, holding his push broom upright as he looked over his hunched shoulder at her, bent over her heavy cello case.

     "She's still a no-show, huh, Miss." He asked, voice quiet, sympathetic. The old housekeeper had worked far too long in this theater to not see what plagued the musician with each curtain call.

     Octavia lifted her case, propping it up vertically with her back facing him before turning around fully, looking up from the ground to meet his gaze.

     She blinked one time, another. Her eyes felt dewy, but Octavia stretched a smile as her voice sounded thick and laden.

     "Maybe next time."

*~*~*

     She was on fire.

     Musky, dark, packed with ponies writhing against one another like a single organism as the walls themselves pulsed. The air smelt of cigarettes and perfume, alcohol and sweat. From the middle of the floor, ponies thumped in time with the music at an infinite decibel, crazed and entranced by the lights flashing from all directions; lasers and strobe, pink and white, yellow and green. Electricity frayed like cut wires between patrons, grinding and swaying with the beat as it all but tore them in two, low dips and lower bass.

     From the stage, she could see everything--giggling and half-trashed mares behind hit on by a ripe group of colts at the bar, two mares sandwiching a stallion on the dance floor, his eyes wider than saucers--and everything could see her, if they wanted to. Vinyl was, after all, here to put on a show.

     She tapped her screen with a hoof, then again, before swiveling over to her table, turning a dial and adjusting a few switches as the music changed, slowing down. The wobble bass stretched out slower, the kick and snare became more dominant, the music thudded as slowly and powerfully as a dragon's heartbeat.

     Another flick of a switch, twist of a dial. The music softened further, the bass drifting away, as the melodic electronica tones took over. The lighting changed, slowly-pulsing strobe to fit the music, earning the colt at the light table a wink from the dj.

     Vinyl braced herself at her place behind the table and her monitor. All the while, her glasses had begun to slide down her bridge as she worked, and this time, the glowstick-clad mare lifted a hoof to adjust them, pushing them completely up, into her streaked and wild mane. She blinked once, fire ruby eyes practically glowing in the scene.

       Vinyl took a breath and advantage of the crowd. One tap on her monitor changed the pitch, and a pattern of switch-flipping and a little imagination did the rest.

     The music sped, the beats become louder and higher in pitch. They rose, and rose, and rose as Vinyl manipulated them, squeezing the life out of the tones until they reached insane pitch and speed. The club frequenters knew the dj's routine well by now, locking their eyes on her; Vinyl could feel them watching her. She bent her head, looking down at her table in drama as she flicked a few final tabs, quieting the music's background noise, leaving only one pitch.

     It climbed higher and higher from low, Vinyl slowly raising her hooves into the air with it. The pitch became infinitely high, the club hushed, and then, nothing.

     Vinyl had them by a string. Her favorite part.

       She smirked, lifting her head and flashing her ruby eyes. She thrust a hoof into the air, pulsing with the energy of the crowd and her other hoof came down with thunder on one button as the beat exploded into being, contested only by the outstanding cheer from her patrons. The speakers shook, the walls ached, and floor pounded as Vinyl had not dropped her signature bass, but rather slammed it down with the Mjolnir.

     And it felt so damn good.

*~*~*

     "Well, that's a wrap." The white mare announced to no one in particular as she cut her equipment for the night. The crowd had left, an odor of sex and energy still lingering in their wake. She adjusted her glasses on her head as a flick of magic spun up the hanging cables like vines from the side of her table.

     "Hey, Scratch."

     Vinyl lifted her head, looking up at the colt, the one who worked the light table, who approached her from the side of the stage. "Oh, hey Flash." She greeted, friendly as always as she tucked her devices into the sporty saddlebag lying under her table. "What's up?"

     The colt reached the side of her table, his eyes trailing from the mess of cords to the curve of the slightly-perspiring and energy-drunk dj as she bent over. "Eh, nothin' really, great set tonight."

    Vinyl flashed him a quick smile over her shoulder before returning to work, carelessly brushing her choppy electric mane. "Hey thanks, you too. Like the lights, nice work."

     She heard him approached just a little closer. Vinyl paused, then dismissed it as she rolled up another cord. "So, uh, d'you wanna grab a drink? You can teach me how you do all the stuff you do." He asked, his voice sounding flattering yet slightly shaky through his resolve.

     A bell went off in the mare's head. Vinyl grabbed the strap of her bag in her teeth, hoisting and dropping it onto the surface of her table and leaning on it. "Listen, Flash, you're a really cool-"

     "You guys almost finished there? Listen, Vinyl, it's been a long night, I wanna go home, kiss the wife..." An older stallion with a gruff voice called from the door.

     Vinyl stopped, calling over her shoulder to her manager. "Yeah, be right-Wait, shit, what time is it?" She snapped her head back to the young stallion before her, who looked momentarily dumbfounded.

     "I-I dunno, one am?"

     "One am...One am...Damn it!" Vinyl looked like she had just been struck by lightning as she flung her bag over her back, taking off for the stage steps. "She's gonna be so pissed!"

    Flash followed her, his eyes still wide. "Wha-Vinyl, who?"

     The mare didn't listen, or perhaps didn't hear. She cut across the floor, calling to her boss once and she nudged open the doors.

     "I'll head in tomorrow, Mr. Beat, probably gonna be late!"

     "You better not- Ah, who am I kidding."

     Vinyl slipped through the doors, calling between the doors as they shut heavily and slowly. "Later, Flash!"

     The mare escaped, swallowed up by the late night and the crisp air, leaving a dumbstruck and speechless colt in her wake. Flash stared out through the closed glass doors, his own reflection staring back at him, before giving a huff of laughter and shaking his head as he turned back to his own closing work. Next time, then.

     *~*~*

     Vinyl stopped in front of her door, breathing heavily from her hurried trek across the town. She fumbled with her bags, cursing under her breath as her keys slipped around the bottom, before finally catching them in her teeth, even if she had to jumble the freshly-rolled cords doing it.

      Click. The door unlocked and and the mare flung herself inside, tossing her bags carelessly to the side, dropping her keys somewhere, anywhere. Her eyes met the glowing digital clock in the darkness.

     1:26 am. Vinyl felt her heart tear from her chest, then get stomped on by the time staring back at her. She'd missed it again, Octavia's concert, by a whopping, unforgivable four and a half hours.

     One hour later than the time before that, a half hour later than the one before that, and about the concert before that, Vinyl couldn't remember anymore.

      How would she make it up this time? What would she tell Octavia? How was she going to forgive her, for the umpteenth time, when Vinyl told her again how she was working, when Octavia herself somehow found time to make it to her own sets from time to time?

      In the darkness--she hadn't bothered to change living room lightbulb for far too long now--Vinyl hung her head. She had to do something for Octavia, anything.

     The thought came out of nowhere. The white unicorn stumbled through the darkness, hit her knee on a side table ("motherfu-") and continued into the kitchen. She felt along the counters, stopping as she felt the cool, rounded glass of the spirit she had been saving for just the right occasion; powerful, potent, perfect.

     She surrounded it in an aura of ice-blue magic as she lifted it, mentally kicking herself for not thinking of magical light assistance before her knee met the table.

     Vinyl strode back through the door, wine toted behind her, hopes toted even higher, and shut it behind her with a slam and without a second thought.

*~*~*

     Knock, knock. No sound behind the door.

     Knockknockknockknock-

     A click, then the door swung open, revealing a completely bewildered and slightly annoyed Octavia, adjusting a white silk robe around her waist. "Vinyl, what in Celestia's name- Do you have any idea what time it is?" Her high-class, melodic voice was music to Vinyl's ears.

     "Yeah, I know, I just- I brought booze!" Vinyl waved the bottle, amber liquid sloshing like thin honey in the unopened bottle. She wore a wary smile, wordless hope that Octavia would drop the stern expression and hustle her in; "Alcohol! Well, why didn't you say so, please, do come in, forget about the concert, that's old hat, my good friend!"

    No such dreams. Octavia stepped out over the threshold, shutting the door behind her as she drew close to the white mare, who shrunk a little back. "How can you even show here, Vinyl Scratch?" Her voice was high and hissed. "Middle of the night, you show up on my doorstep with a bottle of Celestia-knows-what and we're supposed to be merry again, I'm expected to forget about everything?"

     Well, yes. "Please, Octavia, I'm really sorry, just gimme a chance to make it up to you." Vinyl pleaded, voice genuine.

     Octavia remained unfazed, her expression firm as she backed up slightly and leaned against the door frame, hooves crossed. Vinyl could see the hurt in her eyes under her annoyed countenance; the same sadness that throbbed inside her just then.

     "Please, Tavi." She tried once more, her voice gentler. "I'll do anything to speak with you, just for a little bit."

     The grey mare didn't moved from her leaning post, her hooves still folded, silk robe the only thing moving, fluttering softly in the breeze. She looked from Vinyl's pleading face to the bottle she had, eyeing the liquid inside.

     "That wouldn't happen to be brandy, would it?"

     Relief flooded Vinyl, who couldn't bite back a smile as she lifted the bottle to show the label, fancy and a far jump from rum and coke, her usual spirit of the evening. "You bet. I know it's your favorite."

     "Fine, come in." Though her words remained hard, Vinyl could hear the usual good-natured Octavia she knew beginning to seep through. She followed her host in, shutting the door behind her.

     "Not so loud!" Octavia reprimanded, crossing her lovely ornate living room to the kitchen. Vinyl blinked.

     "What's the big deal? You don't have someone else here, do you?" She joked, before falling serious and raising an eyebrow. "Do you?"

     She heard Octavia's scoff from the kitchen. "No, goddesses, no, you know I'm not one for one-evening encounters." She emerged, entering the living room carrying a tray of two wide-bellied brandy glasses with surprising jaw strength. She set them down of the coffee table, before approaching Vinyl, who was still standing. "I do, however, have neighbors."

     "Neighbors, so what? They know me by now, I come 'round often enough."

     Octavia came closer, eye level with Vinyl, who rooted into the ground. "Yes, I know, Vinyl, but at this hour? I don't want anyone getting..." She was so close, so close. So effortlessly seductive. "...the wrong idea."

     Vinyl brain packed its briefcase, said goodbye to the receptionist, and clocked out for the day. What's going on here?

     Her hooves felt lighter all of a sudden, and it took Vinyl a moment to realize Octavia had simply come to get the liquor from her. Oh. Duh.

        Vinyl laughed, seeing the opportunity to tease and seizing it from her best friend. "Oh, Octavia, what, you don't want ponies thinking we're..." She moseyed from her spot, hopping over the back of the couch and plopping onto the cushion, before turning back and wiggling her brows. "...gaaaay?"

     Octavia trotted daintily around the couch, sitting next to the smirking mare and picking a glass from the table. "Come off it, Vinyl, you know what I think of that."

     She popped the cork of the bottle and poured herself a half glass of the rich liquid. Vinyl kept her smirk glued on as she herself grabbed a glass. "What, that one filly back in high school didn't count, 'that how it is? Damn, what was her name..."

     Octavia buried her nose in her glass, cheeks crimson. "No. Besides, it was just a kiss and you know that very well." She mumbled into her drink. "And her name was Lyra."

     "Oh-ho, Lyyyra..." Vinyl repeated in a jokingly seductive voice, pouring herself a significantly larger glass of brandy. "Tell me you didn't like it, Tavi."

     Octavia rested her glass in her lap, tracing the mouth with a hoof in nostalgia. "W-well, no, it wasn't that... She had a girlfriend, Vinyl, you know that as well!"

      Vinyl took a swig, the liquid spreading a pleasant warmth through her chest. "Yeah, Bonnie or Bon-Bon or some shit, I dunno..."

     Octavia lifted her glass back to her lips, sipping a ladylike sip. Vinyl could just barely hear her mutter under her breath, or perhaps she had imagined it. "Bon-Bon, just a little tart..."

     Vinyl took another hefty gulp. "So, regrets? Aside from the 'having a girlfriend' thing, I mean."

      Octavia remained sent, going back to trace the rim of her glass, staring into the liquid. She looked up to her best friend, shrugging so slightly. Vinyl smiled wide and gave a little laugh, lifting her glass and tapping it jovially against Octavia's with a clink, pulling a tiny smile from the grey mare.

     "Hey, wash it back."

*~*~*

     "Oh come on, Vinyl! You promised you'd never mention that again!" Octavia gave a hoot of laughter and a friendly punch to the white mare's leg, who wheezed with laughter, slowing to breathe and to continue her story between snorts.

     "-And then...and then...pffchh d'you remember the look on his face? Oh goddesses, priceless, priceless!" She looked toward the heavens, clenching her hooves before breaking into a fresh fit of laughter. Octavia giggled, sipping once and grunting through the brandy as she sat away her glass.

     "Mmmh! I had to do it, he was a real wanker!" She wiped her mouth on the side of her hoof, laughing once. "Do you know he refused to leave our flat for hours in the morning?"

     "Yeah, I agree, total douche, but still," Vinyl chided, "What you told him was just..." She put on a matter-of-fact expression, raising the pitch of her voice and donning an accent to mimic her friend's legendary breakup line. "Did I ever tell you of my religion? Well, now that we're practically married, do you reckon Edmund is a good name for a son?"

     Octavia smiled and shook her head. "Worked, did it not?"

     "Oh yeah. Never saw a colt move so fast in my life."

      They joined together in a chorus of laughter, lighting up the room with the crackling log fire and the smell of alcohol heavy in the air. Vinyl calmed and sighed, taking another sip of her innumerable glass of spirit. "Know something, Tavi?"

      Octavia fell over on the couch, resting her head in Vinyl's lap. "What's that, Vinyl?"

      "College as your roomate were the best years of my life."

      Octavia alerted, lazily propping herself up on her elbows. "Really? But I was so impatient with you half the time."

      Vinyl swished her glass around absently, watching the liquid roll. "Yeah, well, they were, even if you were always so much classier and prettier and neater than me."

     "Oh come on Vinyl, don't say that, you were always the pretty one!" Octavia said, her wide purple eyes looking up reproachfully. "Besides, I was always too high-strung, took everything too seriously, and then it happened; university ended in a moment, and I was thrust into reality before I knew it."

     The unicorn mare felt a flood of mixed emotions seep into her heart; affection from Octavia's compliment, sympathy and sadness at the tone with which she considered her life. She adjusted her position, slowly stroking the grey mare's hair, her head having fallen back into her lap.

     "But look at you Tavi, you're playing huge concert halls, world-renowned and respected! Success, if I ever saw it." She stared into her own hooves, watching them move. "You're out there, while I'm still stuck in trashy red-light nightclubs."

     "What, Vinyl, I thought you loved what you did?"

      The unicorn shook her head quickly. "No, don't get me wrong, I love to get a crowd riled up, I just can't help but wonder what might've happened if I was... more like you."  The words came from a place the mare had never touched before, perhaps never even knew existed.

     Octavia looked up, solemn, studying, searching her best friend's fiery eyes. "Vinyl, you don't want to be like me."

     The grey mare swallowed her words all of a sudden, clamping her mouth shut as a flood of color crept up her cheeks. She turned her head, looking for something--whatever, it didn't matter--to distract herself and her best friend before she began asking questions. She grabbed Vinyl's music player from the side table, holding it above her face as she rolled vack onto her back, still nestled in the unicorn's lap.

     "Let's see what you've got on here, Vinyl, may I?"

     Vinyl grinned and nodded, but an answer wasm't required for Octavia, who had already begun to flip through her endless playlist.

     "Rock music, electronic music, something else--what's this?" She shuffled with the earbuds, as Vinyl peeked over her shoulder. The unicorn smiled before realization struck her and her eyes shot wide.

     "Wait, Tavi, don't, it's on full-"

     Octavia shot up into the air as through someone had lit a brick of dynamite under her flank. "AUUUGHHH!" She screamed, yanking the cords from her ears and tossing the player from her like it was cursed. It bounced of the back off the couch and landed on the cushion; Vinyl snapped it up and snorted in laughter, switching off the sound that was still blaring, muffled, from the earbuds.

     "-Volume."

     Octavia settled warily back on the couch, eyes still wide, ear still slightly twitching. "Vinyl-" She breathed. Vinyl thought for a moment she was about to get belted. "What in the sweet hell did I just hear?"

      Vinyl couldn't bite back a chuckle. "Come on, you've been to some of my sets before!"

      Octavia shook her head slowly. "Yes, but that wasn't like your sets, that was--that was--screeching practically!" She rubbed her ears, mumbling, "Goddesses, that could be weaponized!"

      "Oh yeah, say hello to my bass gun!" Vinyl mimed a gun, holding it with two hooves and cocking the back dramatically.

      The cellist scoffed. "Basscannon, rather."

      She leaned back into her friend's lap, prying the player back from her hooves. As Octavia began to scroll through it again, Vinyl had the solid feeling she wouldn't be plugging the earbuds back in her ears.

     She was, however, mistaken. "What's this one, Vinyl?" Octavia asked, waving the screen before her friend for only a second, though long enough for the unicorn to be backhanded by fear as she realized just exactly what her friend had stumbled upon.

     "Nothing." She said quickly, "Gimme." Vinyl swiped at the player, missing grandly as Octavia swerved from her attack, making to sit up.

     "Seriously Vinyl, let me listen!"  Octavia fumbled with the earbuds, struggling to plug them back in, the player slipping between her hooves a bar of soap as she doged Vinyl's wrestle attacks.

     "Octavia, you better give me my think right now!" Vinyl flapped her hooves fruitlessly, her head pushed back by Octavia as the cellist hit the play music. "Gimme!"

     Too late. Music came through the earbuds, loud enough for the both of them to hear. Octavia froze, her hoof still holding back her friend, not realizing that Vinyl too had stopped fighting, eyes wide in horror.

     Cello notes flowed into the room, sweet and calm and perfect, and all too familiar to Octavia, who looked back at her friend, cradling the olayer in both hooves in her lap. "This is my music, Vinyl."

     Vinyl tried to wipe her face off in her hooves, white stained sanguine with a flush. "I like it, alright? Sorry."

       She dared to peek between her hooves, letting them fall when she saw the smile on Octavia's face; the one thing she hadn't expected. "Vinyl, I'm honestly touched that you like my music, I never actually thought you did." She dropped her eyes back to her hooves, ears folding back a little. "I mean, you never came to any of my concerts."

    Her tone, the quaver in her voice, pierced Vinyl's heart like a dagger, hurting much more than she ever thought it could. "I love your music, Tavi. I really wanted to come to your concerts, I just..." She didn't know what to say. "...I was always working." The words tasted sour leaving her mouth, dripping with guilt.

     "Oh, well, that's alright, I understand." Octavia said quietly, leaning her head back onto Vinyl's lap. Silence bubbled between them for a moment, and the unicorn decided not to press the subject any further.

     Octavia had the same notion. "The concerts, when you've done so many, I guess they can just get..." She exhaled, staring off into the distance for a moment, watching something Vinyl could not see. "...Tiring."

     "Tavi, you, of all ponies, have got to love what you do, I mean, you're amazing." She referred to more than just her cello, but Octavia couldn't possibly know.

      Octavia turned to her side, head still in the white mare's lap, and stared into the fireplace, the orange tongues of flame casting light onto her face. "I do, I just want to know what it's like, just once."

     She straightened, meeting Vinyl at eye level, looking directly into her, searching for an answer, a glimmer of hope and comfort that the unicorn had always and would always provide to her. Vinyl's mind clouded further as she felt Octavia's sweet breath tickle her nose, and saw every dewy drop clinging to her eyelashes. "To know what what's like?" Vinyl almost whispered, hardly feeling her lips move.

     "To let go."

     The space between them disappeared as Octavia pressed her lips against Vinyl's in heat. The air around them crackled with the fire as the white mare froze for a moment before returning the kiss with a gasp and a whip of intensity, pushing Octavia back slightly. Her thoughts faded as the moment crystallized and suspended itself in time, and everything, all she was, became that mare in front of her, kissing her.

     Octavia sighed into Vinyl's mouth, regaining control of the situation and pushing her slowly back over, until the cellist hovered above the dj, who lay against the arm of the wine-colored suede sofa. Vinyl was lost in her taste; brandy, but with that exclusive, and tantalizing, flavor of wildberries.

     She couldn't help herself; the unicorn snaked her hooves up Octavia's narrow, smooth sides and to her upper back and under her forelegs, drawing her even closer in an embrace. She caressed her coat and brushed aside the long, sleek black hair, which fell like a curtain around the two of them.

     It was unreal to the both of them, dreamlike, slow motion. Neither wanted the kiss to ever end.

     Suddenly, though, Vinyl could feel Octavia start to lift from her lips. The cellist rested her forehead against the mare below her, looking into her eyes with her own half-closed ones, breathing heavily and in gasps. "Vinyl..."

     Vinyl felt a shudder of arousal ripple through her spine and to her core. Her name sounded unimaginably sexy as it dripped from Octavia's panting lips.

     "Teach me how to be wild."

     Vinyl's mind, crazed with lust, love, and passion, didn't think twice before obliging. She moaned aloud, reconnecting their lips in fire, eliciting a squeak from the grey mare and feeling her leg over which she was being straddled dampen.

     With a hefty push, Vinyl flipped the both of them, falling back so that it was now her who hovered over Octavia, whose own hooves locked like a chain around the white mare's neck. They remained connected at the lips, and neither knew how they were still breathing.

     Vinyl finally pulled away, even if just for a gasp of air, and drank in the mare underneath her. Octavia drew her hooves to her chest, her eyes half-lidded, head tilting slightly upward, long hair splayed and hanging over the side of the couch. It stopped Vinyl's heart.

     She reared back down, planting butterfly kisses down the cellist's jawline, earning and savoring a whimper for each one, stopping to nip at her neck. Octavia drew her best friend each closer, rumpling the wild electric hair just above her.

     "Vinyl..." She moaned again, writhing gently under the unicorn. Vinyl paused her ministrations, feeling the telltale dampness brush against her leg and the squirming, rippling muscles below her. She looked up under her lashes at the face of the cellist, her own piercing red eyes half-lidded and crazed with lust; Vinyl knew exactly what Octavia needed. The dampness rolling down her own leg proved the same.

     Octavia bucked her hips up, taking advantage of her friend's momentary distraction. A jolt of pleasure ripped into the both of them, white burying her face with a gasp into grey. Another gyration yielded another chorus of sighs, and another, and another.

     Octavia nibbled on Vinyl's neck as she continued to move, rippling and twisting her hips against the hips of the white unicorn, lost in pleasure with her lifelong best friend. Her bangs were pasted to her face with perspiration, and the cellist could feel the tickle of Vinyl's breath against her nose as she panted.

     They moved together like a wave, one matching the other in pushes, tightening spreading between both of their abdomens like fire. Octavia sunk her teeth harder into Vinyl's shoulder, her gasps fading into sighs fading into moans, raising higher and higher in pitch as her eyes clamped together. Vinyl breathed in her best friend's scent, smothered in the locks of black, eyes also welded shut, groaning quietly; she couldn't bite it back.

     Stars exploded before their eyes, nearly simultaneously. Octavia squealed as she fell over the edge and over again, sinking her teeth involuntarily into Vinyl's shoulder, pain slicing through the unicorn's nerves, amplifying her own orgasm as she moaned a loud, raspy moan into Octavia's neck, pleasure crackling through the both as intensely as the crackling flame in the hearth.

     Neither moved. The air hung heavy with orange, glowing light, musky alcohol, and the sounds of two mares slowly catching their breath.

     Vinyl slumped off of Octavia, rolling to her side, cradled low between the sofa cushions. Octavia wriggled over just a little, curling up under Vinyl's foreleg like a cat in a pool of sun, her eyes drifting and her mind clouding and her body completely, totally at peace.

     Octavia spoke first, the slightest bubble of fear swelling inside her chest. "Does this change anything between us?"

     Vinyl looked down, her red eyes glowing and warm like smoldering embers, over a gentle smile, just for Octavia. She brushed aside a damp strand of silky black mane.

     "Nothing."

*~*~*

     Birds.

     Octavia could hear them, just over the wind and the occasional leaf tapping against her window. Octavia could hear that too.

     Her eyes slid open on their own accord, blinking slowly as leaded weights. Sunlight flickered over her purple eyes, glimmering across them as they shone a heliotrope color. The sun felt warm over Octavia's coat, but her memories felt hot as they tore through her mind's eye.

     She rolled, the cool side of the pillow feeling refreshing against her head, leaving Octavia to only wonder how she had crawled up to her bed. The pounding in her head provided a solid reminder of the drunken stupor in which she probably came in, and she was thankful just for the sweet memories she was able to hang on to.

     Her hoof reached out, expecting to meet a rumpled white coat, falling instead through the air and landing on an empty pillow.

     Octavia stared to the edge of her bed, hurt leaking from the void before her to the pit of her stomach, manifesting in the swelling lump in her throat. Her eyes sank closed, a tear welling and wetting the cellist's lashes as it landed with a tiny pat on her pillowcase.

     Another no-show.

    ...

     "Good morning!" A voice called from the doorway, positive and chipper. Impossible. "Tavi, you awake?"

     Octavia sat up instantly in her bed, her face lighting up like a filly on her birthday. Her hooves flew to her mane, combing it down by instinct, smoothing in vain over the tangled black. "Vinyl! You're here! You stayed!"

      Vinyl strode over, two cups brimming with something steaming floating magically behind her, beaming. "'Course, Tavi, where else would I go?"

     "Nowhere." Octavia's grin rivaled Vinyl's, any negative feeling she may have woken up with dissolving and catching with the breeze. "What do you have there?" She beckoned to the hovering mugs.

     Vinyl followed her gaze. "Oh, I made some coffee." She shrugged, a sheepish smile across her face. "At least, I think it's coffee. I also think I might have broken your kitchen."

     She handed Octavia a mug, taking a place in the cushy comforter next to her. The cellist chuckled, sniffing her drink.

     "That's alright, I can always get another." She took a wary sip, exploding into coughing as she received a heavy pounding on the back from Vinyl's hoof. "That's not coffee, Vinyl."

    "Can't say I didn't warn you."

    Octavia sat her mug down on the bedstand, slipping a newspaper under it, purely from habit. An inquiry flashed through her mind. "Why did you get up so early? I always considered you a rather late sleeper."

     "I, uh, needed to do something." Vinyl placed her own mug of grainy mystery liquid next to Octavia's.

     The answer was less than satisfactory to the curious grey mare. "At..." One glance to the bed clock later, "...7 am?"

     Vinyl made to stand, walking to the edge of the room, withdrawing something that Octavia couldn't quite make out from her bags. "I was going to surprise you with this, you know." A slip of paper fluttered onto the bed.

     Octavia tilted her head to read it, her eyes growing wide, innocent, surprised. "A ticket?"

      Vinyl nodded, picking it up, placing the slip of paper in Octavia's lap. "To your concert. Got it in advance."

    She met the grey mare's eyes, searching them, more genuine than Octavia could ever have dreamed existed.

     "I'm never going to miss one again."

     Octavia flung her forelegs around Vinyl's neck, burying her snout into the messy blue mane, affection for her best friend choking her. "Thank you."

     The two stayed in embrace, until Octavia moved against Vinyl, speaking quietly. "Vinyl?"

    "Mmh?"

     "Just one thing."

     Vinyl's brows furrowed as she pulled away, worry pounding inside her, replaced with confusion as she met Octavia's challenging smile and one raised eyebrow. "What's that?"

     "I'm going to make the coffee from now on."