Canterlot High

Canterlot High

Chapter 4: Explosions

Vinyl had been giddy the whole morning in anticipation, eagerly waiting for the afternoon to come. It had been quite a while since she had felt so happy about something so simple.

But deep inside, she felt very conflicted and troubled.

She had always felt attracted to mares more than stallions. She didn’t exactly know why. Females were usually just more graceful or cute

The problem was however, that she had been thought from a young age, that same sex relationships were wrong. Dirty. Filthy even. She always tried to ignore these thoughts, but when something is etched and carved in your head for 16 years, it’s hard to do so.

She had been sent to a psychologist as soon as her ‘condition’ had made itself known. Not on her terms, of course.

But as much as those ‘religious’ ponies, all the psychologists or her family had tried to repair her barn door, it still swung the other way. She couldn’t, and honestly she didn’t want to, deny nor change her nature.

This time however, she wished she could.

The gray mare who occupied her mind more than anything else (Heck, even more than music at the moment!), was the source of her conflict.

She couldn’t deny it forever: In just one week Vinyl had developed a serious crush on her roommate. And every day, the mare with the amethyst eyes and the cute bowtie she wore most days, did something to deepen that crush.

It was still just a crush, but as such it was powerful. Vinyl didn’t quite know where to place it; she had never felt like this before. Sure, as soon as she had been certain of her sexuality, she had tried dating some with similar mind, but it had never gone further than a few quick kisses.

This time however, only a glimpse at the other mare’s eyes made her feel like all the kisses she had had before combined. She silently thanked Celestia for her shades, for she had found her mind, and eyes for that matter, wander quite often… to places they had no place to be.

Yet.

She mentally slapped herself at the same time as physically.

Given that she was just sitting at the table with six other ponies, one of them being the mare of her thoughts (and dreams), that might not have been her brightest idea yet.

“Are you alright Vinyl?” Asked Carry, who seemed to have taken the habit of sitting at their table. Her voice was full of genuine concern.

Vinyl was about to answer dismissively, when she looked straight into the eyes of the mare opposite of her.

She couldn’t bear seeing these beautiful purple eyes full of worry.

The urge to jump across the table and just hug her became too strong. She knew if she stayed, she wouldn’t be able to suppress it.

With a short “Sorry, not feeling well.” she stood up and left the room, leaving for her own chamber. She felt the eyes of everyone in the room on her back, but she was sure the stare from an amethyst pair burned brighter than the rest.

Upon arriving there, she threw herself on her bed, belly side down and buried her muzzle in her pillow, letting the pillow muffle her frustrated scream. She had wanted to hug that grey filly so badly.

It did only take a minute, until she felt a weight push down on her bed, right next to her, and a hoof placed on her shoulder.

“Vinyl?”

Octavia. Of course it was Octavia. Vinyl should have known the other mare would leave her own unfinished lunch just to go look after her. In that moment she hated herself for making Octavia worry.

There was silence between them for several minutes.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She asked. Her voice contained just as much worry as her gaze had before.

“’t’s nothin’.” Vinyl mumbled in her pillow.

“Should we move our movie date to another day?”

Vinyl shot up “NO!”

Instantly calming herself, she looked at the mare she shared a room with. “No. It’s nothing, really. Well, it’s not nothing, but it’s nothing I need to trouble you with.” Thinking about it for a second, she added “Maybe I’ll tell you later. It’s not the right time. But we don’t have to cancel the cinema.” As her mind finally caught up, the simple realization that Octavia had used the word ‘date’ for their plans this afternoon made her want to squee. She suppressed it quite well though.

“Lunch is over, but maybe we should go downstairs to the others. I’m sure they are worried about you.” Octavia thought for a moment, then she added; “Vinyl, I understand that you don’t want to talk about it, and you don’t have to, I just want you to know, that you have friends here who care about you, and if you ever think you’re ready to talk about it, I really think you should.”

Vinyl wasn’t sure what to make of that. She had barely known these ponies for a week, why would they care about her? It was nice enough that Octavia cared about her, but they spent a lot of time together. The others were nice, but did they really see her as friend? Not just a companion or a drinking buddy like all her former friends?

Her question was answered as she left the room.

In the hallway between the community room and theirs stood three ponies.

Pine and Blue were huddled on the floor next to their door, and Tony was walking the hallway up and down. Only down actually, since he teleported back to their door every time he reached the end and just continued pacing.

When the mares stepped out of their room, Pine and Blue looked up in empathy and concern, and Tony teleported himself only inches in front of Vinyl’s face, lifting her shades with his magic for an inch, staring at her eyes intensely (Octavia cursed herself a bit for standing behind her, not seeing the color of her eyes).

Vinyl noticed a very slight tint of grey in his brown eyes from the close proximity.

A few seconds of awkward silence passed until he pulled out of his stare, letting her glasses fall back down, and sighed; “Ahhh… you weren’t crying… thank Celestia, I get weak when I see cute mares cry. I just can’t take it... You really worried me there for a second. Are you ok?”

“She’s not ready to talk about it, Tony.” Octavia warned him.

“That’s fine.” Said Blue and Pine added “Just know, if you ever need a listening ear or a helping hoof, you can come to us. We’re your friends, Vinyl, and we will do whatever we can to help you.”

The two colts nodded approvingly.

“Ah great… Now she’s crying.” Tony stated as two trails of salty water rushed forth from under her glasses, down the white mare’s cheeks.

Octavia rushed in and pulled her roommate and friend into a tight, comforting hug (which she gladly returned!). It took only seconds before the other three ponies rushed in and joined the hug.

“Those are happy tears, right?” Tony whispered into Blues ear silently, but not silent enough for the other ponies not to hear.

The white mare sobbed very lightly into her roommate’s shoulder, happy the others couldn’t see her face right now.

She collected herself a bit, pulled out of the hug, and said with a chuckle: “Yes, these are happy tears, don’t worry.” She sniffed once. “I just never had friends like this before.”

They all looked at her in empathy. Especially Tony and Octavia looked like they truly understood what she meant. She noticed the latter having shimmering eyes herself. And she was also not sure about the former either...

Vinyl cleared her throat once, having calmed herself again. “Thank you. All of you. For caring about me, I mean.”

Blue waved a hoof dismissively. “Hey, don’t sweat it. You’re a friend. We just wanted to make sure you’re ok.”

“I’m fine. Really. Now more than before. It’s nice knowing there are ponies around who actually care… And I’m sure you three will be the first ones after Octavia to hear about my other problems, when I’m ready to talk about them. Just not yet.” Vinyl said with a smile.

While Blue, Octavia and Tony were completely satisfied with that answer (one of them because she simply didn’t understand anything about friendship or love, the other two because they were oblivious simpletons), Pine narrowed her eyes and tried to catch a glimpse at Vinyl’s to confirm her suspicions. Luckily for Vinyl, her shades made that impossible.

“Shouldn’t you guys go to your classes, rather than standing here around with me?” Vinyl quickly tried to avoid any question Pine might have had.

“Oh tartatus!” Blue cursed. “Spitfire should already be here!” He turned to his best friend. “Tony? No tricks this time.” Said white unicorn just nodded, turned to Vinyl with a “Gladyou’rebetterwegottagobyeseeya!”, and three white flashes later, Octavia and Vinyl were alone again.

Octavia turned to the unicorn that remained and laughed lightly. “Great friends, aren’t they? They neglected their own important appointments just to make sure you were fine.”

“Yeah. Yes they really are.” Vinyl admit, wiping her last tears from her face.

“You know I never had any experience with friends either,” Octavia brought up “but these ponies make me regret I haven’t tried to make friends earlier.”

“I thought I had a lot of friends, but I think I can count down the number of friends who would have come looking for me when I wasn’t feeling well on my right fore hoof.” Vinyl sighed. “Well, that’s all in the past. Let’s just be happy there are still nice ponies out there, and focus on the things ahead.” ‘like our date.’ She added in thought.

“Oh yes, the cinema!” Octavia squealed in delight. “What are we going to watch?” she asked as they started walking in direction of center Canterlot and the cinema.

Vinyl had pondered about that question for quite some time. She loved action movies, but she had the strange carving to watch some romance flick with Octavia.

On the other hoof she wasn’t sure if Octavia wouldn’t catch on her feelings if they went to some romance movie. That again would be great, except if, and that possibility was certainly there, the gray mare would hate her for what she was.

Sometimes she hated herself for it.

“I have no idea.” Vinyl said honestly. “How about we just go to the cinema, see what’s running, and then you decide?

“We could do that.” Octavia hesitated “But please don’t hate me if I choose a bad movie.”

“Tavi, I would never hate you just because of a bad movie.” ‘I couldn’t ever hate you’ she added inside her head.

They passed the rest of the way in relative silence, until they reached the cinema. Looking at the program, Octavia thought long and hard.

“As long as you don’t want to go watch “Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus” I’m fine with any of them.” Said Vinyl.

“Hm… how about this one? “Lucky #Slevin” sounds interesting, doesn’t it?” She asked a bit shyly.

“That’s an action movie. Are you sure you would like that? It might get bloody.” Vinyl asked concerned. She really didn’t want Octavia to choose something just because she thought Vinyl might like it.

Octavia just looked at her white companion and smiled. “I love action movies! The thrill, the chases and the shootings!" Vinyl was sure she heard "...And the explosions." added in a quieter voice, but she said nothing.

"My mother used to ban all slightly violent movies from our mansion, because she thought it would make me violent too, but I went to an unicorn friend with a movie player and watched them anyways. They were my little guilty pleasure I guess.” The gray mare’s cheeks turned red when she realized she had been gushing about her love of action movies.

Vinyl fought hard to suppress the blush that wanted to creep up her face and literally felt her crush deepen. ‘She’s just perfect… If she tells me she’s into mares in the next five minutes, I swear I’ll ask her to marry me.’

She was, of course, only joking, but secretly she hoped it would happen. Sadly, things like that happen only in the cheapest of novels.

“Well what do you know? That certainly is a side of you I haven’t expected. I’m really fine with it though. I love action movies too, and that one sounds like a real good one. Good choice Tavi.” Vinyl praised, which, in turn, caused Octavia to blush even deeper.

They went up to the young man in the ticket booth, and Vinyl was just about to order their tickets, when Octavia suddenly exclaimed: “Oh no…” She looked sadly at her friend “Sorry Vinyl, but I can’t come…” Vinyl looked at her. She just felt like her heart just painfully shrunk two sizes. Octavia didn’t want to go to the cinema with her? But why would she have come along so far, just to dump her now?

“I forgot my money at home..:” The earth pony sighed sadly, turning her head to the floor. The unicorn on the other hand sighed in relieve. “Don’t worry about that Tavi. I invited you didn’t I? Means everything’s on me. Popcorn, drinks and entry included.” She said with a smirk.

“Oh nonono. I couldn’t let you do that. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with myself if you spent all your money on me.”

“Come on, Tavi! Would you rather ditch me now? Besides, the money is no problem. My parents give me as much money as I want and more. I would be happy to pay for you.” Vinyl prayed that she could convince Octavia not to ditch her now. 'Besides, it's customary to pay for ones mare...' She had to force herself not to facehoof again.

“Are you sure?” Vinyl just nodded and took her by the hoof and the two entered the Cinema.