Second Chances II: Love and Courage

Second Chances II: Love and Courage
By Hero541
Chapter 1: Everything Is Perfect

Josh awoke slowly. He’d been having the weirdest dreams last night, and was surprised he’d even gotten to sleep at all. As he rolled over, he came face to face with a white unicorn mare whose shaggy blue mane fell all around her pillow. Her eyes were closed and her cream colored chest rose and fell with each silent breath. The human smiled at the beautiful sight.

Slowly, he raised his hand and began to stroke the beautiful blue mane of the unicorn, causing her to stir in her sleep, a wide smile spreading across her face. Eventually, she inched forward and threw her forelegs around the human, holding him tightly. Josh knew she was playing around, so he began to plant small kisses all around her neck and chest.

“Josh… stop it… that tickles…” she moaned, giggling a little as he moved around her body.

After a few minutes of this, the unicorn finally opened her eyes, her beautiful crimson-magenta eyes, and looked at her lover.

“Morning, beautiful.” said Josh, laying and facing his mare, “You sleep well last night, Vinyl?”

“Mhm.” she mumbled, moving in close and nuzzling his neck as he threw his arms around her, “No thanks to you.”

“It’s hardly my fault you decided to get freaky last night.” said Josh, causing Vinyl to giggle once more.

Vinyl stopped nuzzling Josh and backed off, smiling widely at him. Slowly, they moved in and kissed each other lovingly. Even now, after almost a year, the action still made Josh’s heart soar like nothing else.

“We’ve gotta get up, don’t we?” asked Vinyl as they broke the kiss.

“Fraid so…” said Josh, still holding his marefriend close.

“Aww… I wanna stay in bed with you, baby.” she silently whined, planting another small kiss on his lips.

“I’d love to stay in bed all day too.” said Josh, caressing his marefriend’s mane once more, “But, we’ve got a show in Canterlot in two days, and we’ll have to head out today if we wanna get everything set up. I know for a fact you don’t wanna miss that.”

Vinyl’s eyes lit up at his words.

“Is that code for you saying we’ll get to spend two days wandering around Canterlot while our crew sets up everything for us?” she asked, smirking at him.

“Interpret it however you want, babe.” he said, returning her smirk.

Vinyl smiled and kissed Josh once more, feeling sparks fly in her chest as their lips made contact. Slowly, she rose from the bed, hitting the floor and yawning wide. Josh watched from his laying position as she walked towards the bathroom, his head propped on an arm.

“You have got the best ass in all of Equestria, you know that?” he said, watching her swaying flank as she made her way across the room.

“You’re not too bad yourself, you know.” she replied over her shoulder, smiling coyly at her coltfriend.

“My ass can’t even compare to yours, babe.” he replied, rolling out of bed and standing up.

“If you say so.” replied Vinyl, heading in the bathroom door, “Just try and keep an eye on the board instead of my flank when we're performing, okay?”

Josh saluted to her, making her giggle once more. That giggle was one of the most beautiful sounds Josh got to hear now. He’d been in Equestria with Vinyl just two months short of a year now, and he couldn’t be happier. Because of his show they’d done last year, their popularity as dubstep producers had spread quickly. After he’d returned to be with Vinyl, it wasn’t long till more and more ponies from all over the kingdom began to come and ask them to perform at their venues.

And perform they did, everywhere from Las Pegasus to Fillydelphia. Even Cloudsdale had asked them to come perform, but they’d turned it down because Josh didn’t truly trust the structural soundness of clouds, even if Twilight had used her magic to enchant the producers and their equipment. As one could imagine, Josh and Vinyl were making pretty decent money, enough for them to be able to move Vinyl out of Octavia’s house and Josh out of Rarity’s boutique, and buy a nice house in Ponyville. Both of them missed the sight of their respective friends each morning, but they never had to worry about one of them questioning their occasional… late night activities, whatever those may be.

Josh put on his robe and headed downstairs to begin making breakfast and to fetch the mail. As he stepped out the door and checked the mail slot, he saw it was empty. Dammit he thought Why hasn’t Derpy delivered here yet? We’re closer than anyone else on her goddamn route!

As he finished his thought, a gray pegasus mare made her way towards him. When she landed, she was panting hard.

“Hard morning Derpy?” asked Josh, watching the pegasus place her wing in her mailbag and produce several letters.

“I… r-ran into the-the weather team on my… way.” she said, handing the mail to Josh, “S-sorry about being… late.”

Josh smiled at the wall-eyed pegasus before him. He couldn’t stay upset at her for something as minimal as this.

“Hold on, Derps. I’ll go get you a glass of water real quick.”

“Thanks, Josh. I think I’ll be alright though.”

“You sure?” asked Josh, trying his best to be friendly, “I can just go get one really quick. In fact, I think I have an extra water bottle from one of our shows last week I can give you.”

“Well…” said Derpy, placing a hoof on her chin in contemplation, “I really shouldn’t… I’m only supposed to accept gifts on Hearth’s Warming Eve.”

“They shouldn’t trouble you for coming back with a little cheap water bottle.” replied Josh, “I’ll be right back. Just stay here for a second.”

Derpy nodded as Josh turned and headed back inside. He went straight for the kitchen and opened a cupboard. Grabbing a water bottle, he quickly filled it and took it outside to the mailmare.

“Here you go, Derps.” he said, handing it to her and smiling, “Enjoy!”

“Thanks Josh.” she said, placing the bottle in her bag, “I really appreciate this.”

Josh nodded as Derpy took off to continue her mail route. Making his way back into the kitchen, he saw Vinyl descending the stairs, a towel in her magical grip as she dried her hair.

“Derpy bring the mail?” she asked simply, her voice slightly muffled by the fabric of the towel.

“Yeah. I haven’t opened it yet though. It looks like this one’s from your mother.” he said, holding up a postcard with a picture of Las Pegasus on it.

“What’s she doing in Las Pegasus?” she asked, throwing her towel in a nearby hamper and grabbing the card, “She hates gambling.”

“Beats me.” said Josh, pulling out a frying pan from underneath the stove, “I know they’ve got a helluva buffet there.”

“Speaking of a buffet, I’m starving.” said Vinyl, walking over to the fridge and grabbing a box of eggs.

“Well, we’d better eat quick. Our train to Canterlot leaves earlier than normal this morning.”

“How early is early, if I might ask?”

“About… an hour from now.”

*****

Josh and Vinyl wandered around the market square in Canterlot, the unicorn practically giddy as she walked around her home. Josh always knew how much Vinyl loved Canterlot, and he even relished any opportunity he got to visit that sparkling city. Even if their first trip there hadn’t ended quite as he’d expected…

“Ooh. Look over there, baby!” said Vinyl, rushing over to a small theme park nearby, “Do we have some time to play around here?”

“I don’t see why we wouldn’t.” said Josh, eyeing the theme park, “But, I don’t think I’ll be able to do most of this.”

“Why?”

Josh simply stared down at Vinyl, whom he stood about three feet taller than. She smiled sheepishly at his gaze, realizing her mistake. A noise like a squeaky toy being squeezed sounded.

“I’ve been in Equestria for almost a year,” he began, looking all around for the source of the noise, “and I still have no idea what that goddamn noise is!”

“What noise, babe?”

Josh said nothing, knowing there was no way he could begin to explain it to Vinyl.

“Don’t worry about it.” he said, making his way into the theme park, “C’mon. Let’s just enjoy ourselves a little. You in?”

Vinyl smiled wide and followed her coltfriend into the theme park, glad to be able to spend a day with him like this.

*****

Josh and Vinyl lay in bed that night, thinking back on all the fun they’d had that day. Josh had been right that he couldn’t do most of the things that were in the park, but he still enjoyed watching her have a great time. Vinyl rode almost all the rides in the park throughout the day, all the while trying to convince the ride manager to allow Josh to come with her. All they had to do was look at the tall human once before they would burst out laughing at the idea of him trying to squeeze into the small car for the ride. It never bothered Josh however, mostly because he knew better than them that he had no chance of fitting.

All the while they were there, ponies all over began to recognize them and ran up, asking for autographs and photos. Vinyl was beginning to get used to all the attention, though her magic still shook with excitement as she tried to sign whatever they asked her to. After they were done in the park, the two lovers made their way to Vinyl’s favorite café in downtown Canterlot, where they had lunch and talked about the show in two days. There again, they were met with dozens of fans, all eager and excited to see their idols.

Now, they lay in their bed in the castle suite, having capped off a wonderful day by passionately making love to one another. Vinyl laid her head on Josh’s chest, her forelegs wrapped around her lover, her eyes closed as she listened to his soft heartbeat. Josh stroked her beautiful blue mane, occasionally massaging her ear and earning a soft moan of contentment from the unicorn.

“Baby, thank you for today.” said Vinyl, raising her head and looking into Josh’s blue eyes, “I’ve never had so much fun in all my life.”

“Anything for you, Vinyl.” replied Josh, smiling at his marefriend, “I’m glad you had a good time.”

“I had an awesome time! Even if you couldn’t ride those rides with me, it was still a lot of fun.”

“Hey, Vinyl.” said Josh, sitting up a little, “Can I talk to you about something? It’s kinda been bugging me.”

“What’s wrong, Josh?” she asked, rising off his chest and looking at him with concern painting her face.

“Well…” said Josh, trying to find a good way to phrase what he wanted to say, “I know that we’re… Well, we’re pretty different.”

“Well, yeah. I knew that.” she replied, raising an eyebrow in confusion, “What’s the problem there?”

“The fact I’m a human and you’re a pony… does that bother you, even a little?” he asked.

Vinyl just stared at him, a blank look on his face. Wow thought Josh, internally facepalming, way to kill the mood, jackass.

“Where’s this coming from?” asked Vinyl finally, breaking the silence after awhile.

“I’ve just been thinking about it today.” he replied, scratching the back of his neck nervously, “At the theme park. I know you really wanted me to ride those rides with you, and you know I would have. I just… did that embarrass you at all?”

“Of course not.” she said, smiling at him, “I should have known you couldn’t have done a lot of that. I wasn’t embarrassed, and it doesn’t matter to me that you’re a human at all. I’d love you no matter if you were human, pony, or even griffin.”

Josh smiled, glad he hadn’t screwed anything up with his question. He grabbed Vinyl’s neck and pulled her into himself, kissing her passionately. She smiled and pulled him closer, probing his mouth with her tongue and feeling herself melt into his embrace.

“I love you too, Vinyl.” he said once they broke, pressing his forehead against hers just below her horn.

Together, they lay in bed, relishing the feeling of their warm bodies pressed against each other. As they held one another, both thought how much they loved the other, and how nothing in all the world could make them happier than to be together. Slowly, they drifted off to sleep, still in each other’s embrace and both still very much in love.