Octavia woke up alone in bed for the first time in ten years. She lay there for a bit, her heart breaking. She turned to face the picture on her nightstand. It was of her and Vinyl when they moved into their little house in Ponyville.

"Hey, Taivi! Check this out!"

"Vinyl! Put that down before you break it…!"

She softly closed her eyes as tears filled them. She tried to tell her mother, really she did, but she just…couldn't. There were ponies she just had to meet, news she just had to hear, catching up she just had to do. Harmony was a chaotic whirlwind, dragging Octavia all over the ballroom, barely allowing Octavia to speak. She didn't even ask where Vinyl was or if she was okay. She didn't even seem to notice she was gone.

"Vinyl, stop! That tickles!"

"Sure, I'll stop. Once you admit I'm the best musician in all of Equestria!"

"Okay, okay! You're the best…after me, of course…!"

Octavia shook her head, hoping to clear the memories with it. She slowly sat up, climbing out of bed to get ready for the day. She wondered if Vinyl would forgive her, or even allow her to apologize. She hoped so. She wouldn't forgive herself until Vinyl did. And if she didn't…Octavia shivered. She didn't even want to think about that.

"This is it, Taivi. This is where all of our dreams come true. This is where it all starts. Right here in Ponyville. You're going to be part of the Canterlot Symphony, and I'm gonna be the best DJ in all of Equestria. I can see it now. Octavia Melody and Vinyl Scratch, the best musicians in all of Equestria."

"Vinyl, you know you're my only dream. I don't care where life takes us, as long as you're by my side, all my dreams have come true. You are all I need."

"Same here, Taivi. Same here…"

Octavia walked down the stairs, wiping tears away, and into the kitchen. She knew her mother and brother were waiting for her in the dining room, but she didn't want to face them. Not now. She was worried. She hadn't seen Vinyl all morning and she worried Vinyl left without her.

However, once she got to the kitchen, she stopped, gasping, her heart breaking all over again. She saw Vinyl there, pouring herself a cup of coffee and making herself some toast, much to the chagrin of the staff.

But it wasn't that that made Octavia sad. It was the purple sunglasses Vinyl was wearing. Whenever she put her purple sunglasses on, mentally, she'd have the DJ PON-3 persona. While it was mostly how she kept her work life separate from her home one, they also came on when Vinyl was…emotional. Vinyl struggled to be vulnerable, and these sunglasses were her armor. DJ PON-3 was a mute DJ who only loved to turn records and party till the sun came up.

She'd often put them on after she and Octavia had a massive fight, and while that wasn't all that common, it did happen once in a while. All couples were bound to fight. But when Vinyl put on those glasses, it was a clear sign Vinyl was in no mood to talk or show any emotion whatsoever. It'd usually piss Octavia off. She was the kind of pony who liked to deal with a problem head-on, and get it solved quickly so they could move on. Vinyl was a…put it off as long as possible mare and usually, the day would end with Octavia ripping those damn glasses off and forcing Vinyl to deal with whatever fight they were having.

Today, though, it was only a reminder of how much she hurt Vinyl last night when she lied about their life.

"Vinyl…" Octavia started, walking up to her marefriend.

But Vinyl didn't even flinch. That was when Octavia noticed the headphones on Vinyl' head and heard the blaring music coming out of them. Octavia was about to take them off, when she noticed the song playing in the background. It was one of the songs that was playing in the nightclub the night they met. It was a playlist Vinyl had put together for Octavia for their fifth anniversary. It was an anniversary she remembered clearly.

"You know what, Taivs. I'm just gonna cancel," Vinyl said, raising her hooves in the air.

"Vinyl, no. You need to do this. We need the money," Octavia said, helping Binyl pack for her gig.

"It's our fifth anniversary. It's big. We should be celebrating." Vinyl insisted, clearly uneasy.

"And we will. Remember, I'm coming with. Just…play your set and when you're done, we can party all night long."

Vinyl rolled her eyes. "Aren't anniversaries supposed to be romantic. I don't think your idea of romantic is partying up in Ponyville's underground club with Derpy and Doctor Whooves on their first date."

Octavia smiled. "Okay, one, it's not just a first date, it's a group date. Lyra and I set Derpy up on a blind date but she was too nervous to go alone so we decided to make it a group date. Bon Bon and Lyra are going too and you'll be there once you're done." Octavia leaned towards Vinyl, whispering seductively. "Plus, if partying up in Ponyville's underground club with Derpy and Doctor Whooves on their first date isn't romantic enough, I'm sure I can fix that when we get home."

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Vinyl asked, biting her lower lip, still not fully convinced.

"Positive." Octavia pulled away, dragging Vinyl up the stairs from the basement, balancing the case of Vinyl's records carefully on her back while Vinyl carried her table, her amps, and other such equipment with her magic. "Now let's go. We're gonna be late."

"Sure, Taivi. I'll be right up. I just gotta check on something. Make sure my baby is ready to play the best show ever tonight."

Octavia rolled her eyes. "DJ's and their equipment, I swear." She muttered as she walked up the stairs.

Vinyl smiled after her, deciding to let Octavia have this one and not mention how she calls her cello her precious baby. She walked over to her shelf of records, all neatly organized in their sleeves and pulled out on particular one. A record she had very carefully put together to play tonight, as a surprise for Octavia. It took months to perfect, but she thought she got it just right. She quickly put the sleeve in one of her equipment boxes so Octavia wouldn't see it and quickly hurried up the stairs, with Octavia calling after her to hurry up.

Octavia sighed, before bracing herself. She had to do this. It was now or never. She took a deep breath to steady herself before she ripped off Vinyl's headphones, grabbed her hoof, and began pulling her to the dining room.

"What the hell…!" Vinyl exclaimed, so shocked for the first time in her life that she actually broke character. This was so unlike Octavia that it truly surprised Vinyl.

Octavia stopped right before they entered the dining room. "Look, Vinyl, about last night–"

"Taivi, I'm not in the mood to–"

"No. You are DJ PON-3. Which means you are done talking. Now you're going to listen. Besides, you did plenty of talking last night for the both of us. Got it?"

Vinyl was silent, her mouth twisting in displeasure.

Octavia took that to mean that she won, for now, at least. So, she continued, before Vinyl could change her mind. "As I was saying, about last night, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so quick to lie about our lives because, truth is…you were right. Being back here, it made me worry that maybe my parents were right. Not about you but…well…about how good our life really was without the family name. Looking back on our life, I worried that I had held you back. That I had held us back. When we first bought our house in Ponyville, the day we moved in, you said that was where all of our dreams were going to come true. That was where it was all going to start. And none of it ever really did. Because I was scared for it to. I was scared that if I opened myself up to the possibility, and it all failed, my parents would be right. And I didn't want that. At least when none of it went to plan because of me, there was the hope that if I just let it all happen, it would work out. But if I did and it didn't, then what?"

Vinyl took a deep breath and pulled off her glasses, looking Octavia in the eye. "Taivi, you know I never cared about that. Any of that. Not really. Sure, it'd sweeten the deal, but the only thing I really cared about was you. I just…thought that was all you cared about too."

"It is. I just…I'm sorry. I just…I wanted you to have the life you dreamed of. I wanted to give that to you." Octavia looked down, tears filling her eyes.

"Taivi," Vinyl put a hoof under Octavia's chin. "Don't you know? You are my dream." Vinyl sighed, looking away, rubbing the back of her neck. "Though, a lot of it is my fault. I guess coming here, I felt insecure. I worried that you coming back here, you'd realize how much you missed this life and that you'd realize your parents were right and that I wasn't good enough. I guess I've never been too good at expressing myself and overreacted instead of just talking to you about it."

"Oh, Vinyl. You are and always have been enough." Octavia reached up and kissed Vinyl. "You needn't ever worry about that. You are my soul mate and nothing can ever change that."

Vinyl smiled. "Soul mate, huh? I like the sound of that. Whatever made you go there?"

Octavia shrugged, thinking back to her talk with Bon Bon all those years ago. "Oh, nothing. Just a realization a good friend helped me come to." Octavia took a deep breath, before grabbing Vinyl's hoof and turning towards the dining room. "Alright. Ready to face my parents?"

"As ready as you are." Vinyl smiled softly. "You sure you're ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be. More ready than I was last night."

Octavia didn't know what was to come in the future, or what was going to come in the next hour, but she was no longer afraid. Because, she knew, that no matter what came of this visit, she'd have Vinyl by her side, no matter what.

She and Vinyl kissed one last time before turning towards the dining room and walking through the doorway, holding hooves in solidarity.

No matter what, Octavia and Vinyl had each other, and that was all that mattered…

Author's Note

Okay…before any of you start bashing my head in for ending it here…no I didn't rush anything, nor did I change the ending last minute. This is how I planned for it to end since the beginning. Kind of. Since the second chapter. For a reason…

Okay, the explanation you have been waiting for…

So, I have a half sister. The only time I really ever met her was when I was seven, and that ended…poorly.

Over ten years later and she comes knocking on our door, stirring up all these emotions. Which is where the idea for this story came from. It was originally meant to be about Vinyl and her brother coming over for the first time in years, yada yada, but…well, it didn't end there.

Recently, as in last year, I got into contact with my grandmother for the first time in my whole life. That part is a little more complicated.

As some of you have said in the comments, you guys can't exactly imagine casting out a member of your family and you don't get why others would. Well, here's a reason. Religion.

I'm not gonna go into all that stuff since religion can be a very sensitive topic, and if there are any comments about who's religion is wrong and who's is right and blah blah blah, any comments on religion that are not directly related to the story will be deleted by me.

To put it simply, my grandmother is a jehovah witness. She raised my mother in the same religion. Long story short, my mother was disfellowshipped and for those of you who don't know what that means, it's a lot less brutal form of an Amish shunning. Have any other questions, look it up.

Anyway, my mother and grandmother haven't spoken in decades. Until, one day, I was curious and decided I wanted to get in contact with her. She wanted to get to know me, and since I technically was never baptized in the religion and then disfellowshiped, her religion would allow her to without consequences. The day my sister came, my mom had called my grandmother to see if she's had any contact with my sister and whatnot, again, complicated, but let's just say, that phone call ended with me meeting my grandmother in person for the first time in four days from then, since the only contact we had was over the phone.

For me personally, I need time to process things. So, it was all very overwhelming, emotions were high, I was sick with nerves, (gotta love having an anxiety disorder), it felt like the day was coming too quickly and yet not quick enough…it was a lot…especially with my sister coming and how things ended with my mom and my grandmother and among other things I'm not about to unhash right now…

I ended the story here because ultimately, it was all too much and I ended up canceling the day before. Well, the night before and we agreed that the next time we planned to meet, it will be with more forewarning so I have time to process it. So…that's the story behind the…story. Now that you know, you can probably start understanding why the story played out as it did. And as I'm writing this, I'm finding more nuances between the story and real life that I didn't even realize existed.

Welp, now that those feelings are all reopened, I'm gonna deal with them the best way I know how to deal with emotions which is by completely avoiding them and watching Once Upon A Time on Disney Plus.

Hakuna Matata everybody.