Neon's eyes cracked open slowly, and all he could see was the ceiling. Something about it might have seemed off if he was a little more awake, but he was hazy and tired. He couldn't quite remember everything that happened before he got into bed, just a blur of different shades of gray. Right now, he was feeling drained and empty, a feeling he knew plenty well.

“Hey there sexy, how are you feeling,” a light feminine voice asked. He smiled, realizing a blank spot on his memories and his exhaustion meant that something good happened. He got laid hard, a hot mare next to him, things were going his...

...wait. That wasn't Vinyl's voice.

Scattered memories popped up inside his head, but he didn't want to believe them. Neon was a good stallion, he was faithful to his mare, he wouldn't do something this wrong...would he? He didn't want to look, but he needed to know. He reluctantly turned his head, desperately hoping he had dreamed the patches he remembered, and that his beloved DJ unicorn was the one in bed next to him.

Neon hadn't done enough to earn the universe's respect to get a wish like that.

Very close in bed to him was the renowned cellist and Neon's childhood attraction, Octavia. And she was looking at him sexily. Oh no. Oh fuck no. I couldn't have done this. As much as he badly wanted to deny it, it was the truth. He had sex with Octavia. While he was with Vinyl. After he had promised her that he cared about her and wanted to keep her happy. And he had gone and done this. His pupils shrank as he attempted to hide beneath the blankets.

Octavia placed one of her hooves over Neon's stomach, circling around to tease what was lower. “What's the matter, didn't you like the little fun we had?”

Neon, still ashamed by how he could do something so wrong, pushed Octavia off of him. She was a little more grounded, so he pushed himself out of the bed and onto the floor. “W-what did you do to me? Did you get me drunk, or drug me, something to get me to sleep with you?”

She slid to his side of the bed so she could look at him on the floor easier, never losing that sultry look. “I didn't have to do anything, all I did was show myself off, and you leapt onto me at first sight. If you're regretting it, it's on you.”

Neon scrambled to his hooves and pushed one into Octavia's face, millimeters from touching her. “But you knew! You knew I had committed myself to Vinyl, and you still went and did this!”

Only surprised momentarily, she pushed his hoof away and smiled. “You knew it too, and you still had sex with me. Maybe Vinyl isn't important enough to be a restriction, for either of us.”

Neon backed up at her words. She's wrong...right? I...I care about Vinyl! I have to! I...do I? “N-no, I promised Vinyl. I-I said I would commit to her. There's no way I would betray her like that!” He tried to sound confident, but his voice cracked and his eyes watered. Wanting to keep dignity, he slowly walked to the door and opened it, only turning back to give Octavia a harsh “goodbye”, the anger in his words clearly visible.

Once outside the bedroom, he made no effort to hide his feelings. He ran out of the house as fast as he could, passing by three confused ponies he might have recognized as Octavia's ensemble if he slowed down to look. His vision was also impaired by the tears that were now freely flowing, even if he was still trying to hide the sounds of his crying. He ran through Ponyville, drawing at least a little attention from the ponies he passed by, even if this was the kind of thing that they saw uncomfortably often.

As quickly as he could, he ran back to his house, until he reached his front door. That was the point when he remembered that if he went in, he'd have to face Vinyl. Would he be able to do that? Could he possibly confess to what he did? What consequences was he going to face for it, and would he be able to face them?

No...no, I can't do it. I can't face Vinyl, not now. He began breathing heavy, hoping he could calm down his emotions, at least long enough to avoid her. For how long, he didn't know, as long as he needed to. Wiping his eyes, he opened his front door. As he expected, but not at all what he wanted, Vinyl was lying on the couch reading a magazine.

Upon hearing the door open and close, Vinyl looked up and saw her boyfriend. She smiled at his return, but she wouldn't greet him in a normal manner. “Well, it's about time you came back! Did you get something for dinner?”

Neon looked at her, and he felt all the guilt flooding back, even worse than before. He could feel his throat tightening again, and he wanted to start crying all over again. But he couldn't, not in front of Vinyl. Against his best efforts, the tears broke out again, and he needed to start running all over again. He bolted up his stairs, didn't matter where he was going, anywhere away from her.

Vinyl only got a brief glimpse at Neon, but in his current state, that was more than enough to tell her that there was something seriously wrong with him. “He goes to see Octavia, and comes back crying. Normally, I'd say he got harshly rejected, but that would require that he was after her at all. So what the fuck did she do to him?” Her less-than-pleasant opinion of Octavia meant she first thought of some horrible things she would do to her rival music mare, but a quick glance at the staircase changed that. “But I really should check on Neon first.”

She slowly got up from her permanent spot on the couch and climbed the stairs. As she expected, Neon had holed himself in his room. Without even putting her ear to the door, she could hear the muffled sounds of his crying. She backed up one step, unsure of how to proceed with a delicate situation like this. Vinyl was not a mare with tact. She never needed it, Neon had never shown weakness, times were fun with them. She had absolutely no idea how to comfort another pony, so would it even be worth the effort?

Of course it would, she reasoned. Kids are going to have issues that we'd have to solve, better to practice on a pony that isn't as impressionable. She thought about her explanation, and threw it away. No, I'm doing this for Neon. He needs me.

Taking a few deep breaths to keep herself calm, she knocked on the door. “Neon, are you okay in there?”

Seconds after she finished, she heard him reply with a loud “go away,” his yell strained and forced.

Vinyl was taken aback by his shout, but she wasn't going to give up that easily. “Seriously Neon, you alright? You want to talk? I'm here for you, you know.” She may not have been the best at sympathy, but she was going to do the best for her stallion.

“I said go away! I...I don't want to talk to anypony right now!”

Vinyl wasn't quite sure how she should proceed from this point. “He pretty clearly said that he wants to be alone. Do I take that and do what he wants, or interpret it as a further cry for help? Do I love him enough to respect his wishes, or love him enough to do what he needs even if it's not what he wants?” She pondered what the best course of action in a situation like this, until the shiny doorknob caught her attention. Curious, she grabbed it with her magic and turned, and the knob turned as well. “I guess Neon forgot he had a lock on this door.”

She pushed the door open, slowly to remain hidden. The bedroom was dark, mostly due to its lack of windows, but Vinyl could still see Neon well. He was lying on his stomach above his blankets, his face buried deep in his pillow. The pillow was doing a good job hiding his wails, but they were still audible. Just the sight of it was making Vinyl depressed, to the point she was considering leaving him to his devices.

But she needed to remain strong, be there for Neon when he needed her most. She walked further into the room, leaving the door open behind her for the needed light, and sat down in the small space on the bed next to him. She began stroking his mane and back, the same way a mother would to her child. Or close enough, she was not at all experienced in soft talk. She was damn well going to try, though. “Sweetie, what happened? I know, I know sometimes things can be tough, but it really is better to talk about them. I want to know what's gotten you this bad, because I don't like seeing you in this state. Please...just tell me,” her voice trailed off.

Neon didn't lift his face up from the pillow, yet he still yelled back. “I told you I wanted to be alone! Just go away!”

Now that was a tone Vinyl had heard before. It sounded almost exactly like her brother did whenever he whined as a teenager. But she had assumed Neon was above all of that. They had known each other for years now, and she knew that he had a high tolerance for depression. When they had spent their days, with countless hours planning and practicing for something that would end up being for nothing, he could shrug it off with nothing worse than mild disappointment. Vinyl would admit that she had cried in those situations, and Neon had held her and told her it would be alright. Those were the moments where she realized she was falling for him.

But he wouldn't let her return the favor. Did he have too much pride, or did he not trust Vinyl to help? “Neon, don't you remember that time we worked our flanks off for a week to get noticed, and we were basically told we were shit? Do you remember what you said when I needed support?” Neon didn't respond, like he wanted to completely shut out everything around him. Vinyl wasn't going to let him do that. She began prodding the back of his head while asking “don't you remember” again.

Neon's crying had calmed down, but he was still not in the mood to talk. He couldn't ignore Vinyl's repeated pokings, though, so he swallowed his current pain and responded. “That you can't take rejection so harshly, tomorrow will be a better day, and that we should take it as an excuse to improve. Sorry, but I can't believe my own bullshit right now.” His words were muffled by the pillow, but Vinyl was close enough to him that she could still understand him well enough.

“Well, I'm not sure how much you're helping my self-esteem by admitting what you said to motivate me is complete crap, but I'll let that slide for now. Even if you were just saying what you felt like saying at the moment, it's good advice and you need to take it now. Whatever happened, get back on your hooves, take it like a stallion, and make it a learning experience. You can do that, right?”

Neon grumbled and groaned loudly, and turned his head onto its side, facing Vinyl. His cheeks were shining from the limited light, caused by the streaks of tears running down his face. His eyes were reddened, and he was breathing heavy to stop from crying again. He glared at Vinyl. “Sure. That'd be good advice, if it wasn't my fault. Truth is, I fucked up. I fucked up bad, and I don't know if I can recover from this one.”

Vinyl slapped him on the shoulder. “Oh come on, don't get so down about it. It's gonna feel bad now, but give it a few hours or days, you'll be just fine.” She got on top of him like she would when she wanted a hard screwing, but gave him a solid hug instead. “So come on, might as well tell me what happened already. Why keep it at secret?”

Neon rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I wonder why. Could it possibly be because sharing it would ruin my life irreparably?” He seemed pretty annoyed at Vinyl, but his eyes widened in realization at what he had said, and the tears started again. “I...I really fucked up, didn't I? Vinyl, I'm really really sorry.”

She sat up halfway, propping herself up with her front hooves on Neon's chest. “What are you apologizing to me for?” She began making a few connections, between his attitude, apology, and where he came from. Her compassion began fading as she harshly asked “Neon, what did you do?”

Very close to full-on crying again, Neon confessed. “Octavia seduced me. I'm really sorry, but I...I had sex with her. She pulled me into her control, and I couldn't help myself. It just...happened.” Neon shut his eyes tight, not wanting to see the ramifications of what he had said.

They were exactly what he expected. Vinyl was pissed. Beyond pissed, even. Every ounce of kindness she had towards her boyfriend only a minute ago had all flown away, replaced with total fury. “You did WHAT?!” Her hooves still on his chest, she shoved him off of the bed onto the hard floor beneath, and stood on the opposite side. “How could you do something like this?! Did you forget the promise you made?! You said that you would stand by me, you would commit to me, and we would be a family, the two of us! And then you just turn around, stab me in the back, and fool around with that whore?!”

Neon was still breathing heavy, more from the assault he was receiving now. He stood up, desperate to defend himself and keep things calm. “I know what I did was wrong, Vinyl. I don't want to hurt you, because I really do love you. She just...just...”

“Just what?! Just showed you the fun of cheating on your girlfriend?! Just showed you that you don't actually care about me?!”

“That's not what happened, Vinyl! She lured me in with promises of being friends and talking about music, and then she shows up in lingerie and pulled me under! I would never cheat on you intentionally, and Octavia isn't anywhere near as important to me as you!”

“Oh yeah, you wouldn't ever cheat on me, because I'm oh so dear to you! That doesn't do anything to explain that YOU DID! You know what I think?! I think that once you met Octavia, you were only leading me along, when SHE was the only one you wanted! Am I wrong?!”

“Vinyl, please. That isn't what I think at all. I love you, I really do! Octavia's got nothing on you!”

“Is that so?! So tell me, why would you even consider fucking her if you didn't care?!”

Neon started to retort, before he realized. Do...Do I care? I mean, I know I at least liked her just as a pony, but...was I in love? She seduced me, but would I have fallen for it if I didn't love her deep down? Could I attribute it all to lust? How much do I really love Vinyl? Can I love both of them? Does it even matter at this point? He had so many questions, but he was nowhere close to any answer.

Vinyl saw his silence, and ended the argument there. “I'm leaving, Neon. Don't bother trying to talk to me, it's over. Everything is. Goodbye.” She slammed the bedroom door behind her.

Alone again, Neon crashed face down into the pillow once more, and the weeping recommenced. But it wasn't out of regret anymore, it was instead caused by a black hole of depression. Everything he knew, his entire life from the past few years, all ended in a few minutes by the mare he loved. He pulled the pillow tighter, wanting to suffocate himself in sorrow.

Outside, Vinyl had just stormed out the front door, and stood on the doormat. She wanted to leave, get away from this house, from the stallion she thought cared about her. She wanted to forget it all, leave it behind, but she couldn't. As independent as she wanted to be, Neon was her world. She owed everything to him, the laughs, the fun, the love, and even her job, all of it was because of him. How could he turn on me so quickly, after everything he did? Against her will and better judgment, she laid down on the cold ground, and cried.

Author's Note

In the time it took me to write this chapter, I did a 120 Star run of Mario Galaxy.