Nightsong’s fluffy ears twitched as she slowly came back to wakefulness. The deep throaty vibrato notes of a cello rising slowly through the scales greeted her as she did. She smiled, not opening her eyes yet, she felt bonelessly relaxed as she drank in the marvelous velvety tones. Not as mellow as she had feared it would be, it was like… dark chocolate for the ears.

How the instruments sounded always worried the dedicated craftspony; no matter how much she checked and double checked. Both the carving of the parts and the gluing and assembly, there was always that little bit of doubt until she got a chance to play it or see the customer work it for themselves.

Opening her eyes, she could feel her smile stretching from ear to ear at the sight of Octavia balanced on her rear hooves, cradling the neck of the cello in the crook of one fetlock, the smooth edge of her hoof rolling lightly across the hoofboard with the slow ascending scale, her other forehoof loosely grasping the bow as it traveled a single full pass with each note, giving her ample time to listen and feel each one.

The Earth Pony’s eyes were closed, brow furrowed as she focused on listening, but she had a tiny smile on her lips as each note thrummed through the room. Nightsong couldn’t have interrupted that concentration even had she wanted to, they were both enthralled by the voice of the instrument.

After the slow, rich scale came other exercises, putting the cello through its paces with increasing speed and facility. Octavia was a master, that was easy enough to see, and hear! A true virtuoso with her chosen instrument. As her confidence in the instrument improved, she commanded, and the cello rose nobly to her challenge.

Pizzicato, Spiccato, Double stops and Glissando. Soon Octavia was just playing, and Nightsong could tell the difference. When it stopped being an assessment and became a frolic between musician and instrument. She let her head drop to the sofa again, closing her eyes and just soaking in the rich velvety tones. It was without a doubt, the best cello she’d ever made, but so deep! It would compete with Double Bass on the low end, but still run up its five octaves into dueling the Violas for attention.

When Octavia finally slowed to a stop, the music hung in the air, Nightsong’s ears straining to hear every last second.

“Welcome back, Nightsong,” Octavia whispered slyly, giggling no doubt at the blush the batpony could feel shooting across her face.

Nightsong blinked her eyes open sheepishly; Octavia had settled back on all fours, the cello leaned up against the wall. Her violet eyes were lidded and dreamy, as was the little smile stretching across her muzzle.

“T-that… that sounded lovely, Octavia,” the batpony whispered shyly, giving her a gentle smile of her own, “You have amazing talent.”

Nightsong had to physically keep herself from staring as Octavia’s blush covered her face, the earth pony sheepishly waving a hoof.

“Oh no, I’m no more talented than any other musician,” she replied demurely, “I have simply put a quite a lot of time and effort into learning and practicing. As I’m sure you had to do as well, no?”

“Yes, I really did,” Nightsong replied quietly, glancing down to stare at her hardened hooves, “It took a quite awhile. Luck, and…”

The batpony groaned quietly, laying her head in her hooves. All those bits she had just let slip through her grasp, all those years. All the surprised blinks or odd little grins finally made sense to Nightsong. A gentle hoof encircled her own, and she shyly peeked up.

Octavia smiled warmly, giving the batpony’s hoof a gentle squeeze, “It’s okay. Mistakes happen, and the best thing you can do is move forward.”

“And make more bits, that always helps too.”

Vinyl grinned cheekily as she sauntered inside, a group of bags held in the air, alight with azure magic. A little paper slip was settled down in front of Nightsong, crisp and new.

“There ya go!” she told Nightsong with a wink, “Now why don’t you and Tavi go do something fun, y’know? And when you get back, I’ll have lunch ready.”

“...it’s your day to cook, isn’t it,” Octavia muttered in a hollow tone, rubbing at her eyes with one hoof.

“Yup!”

Nightsong blinked as she glanced curiously at the distraught Earth Pony.

That bad?

“I uh… well, I suppose I could use a few new tools. A few are… heh, reaching the end of their lives, I’m afraid.”

And the more she thought about it, the wider the smile on Nightsong’s muzzle grew. Money. She had money! Good money! Maybe she could find a place to put in some custom orders, maybe a nice dress…

“I’ll be happy to go with you, if you’d like, Nightsong,” Octavia offered with a gentle smile, “I know a few shops in town you might enjoy.”

Nightsong nodded happily as she got to her hooves, giving a grateful grin, “Thank you, Octavia, really. Let me get dressed.”

The eager batpony did her best not to scamper upstairs, taking it slow and gracefully- till she was out of sight at least. This was going to be fun!

Octavia was rather grateful for her family’s insistence on etiquette courses when she was younger; it took quite a bit of self-control to keep herself from staring in shock as Nightsong returned from dressing. She had been a little surprised to hear that Nightsong wanted to dress up to go shopping, of all things. Bu when the batpony had come back downstairs…

She had squeezed into a set of denim overalls, a blue-and-purple bandana tied around her mane and almost covering her tufted ears. A little notebook hung from one side of her harness, and a pen dangled from one ear. Somewhat darkened reading goggles were settled over her eyes, and she shot Octavia a sheepish grin.

The Earth Pony gulped. Sisters, this… this wasn’t fair. She was adorable. Adorkable, even. And that was a weakness of Octavia’s, a big one. She and Vinyl had once considered attempting to court Twilight Sparkle. But since the nerdy little unicorn had become a full blown alicorn princess, and seemed to be courting a mare of her own, they had set that adorkable dream aside. Now? Now… this was going to be a heck of a day.

Vinyl caught her eye and winked, giving a silent whistle before scurrying into the kitchen. Octavia quietly huffed.

‘It’s alright, Octavia, you can do this. ...and you need to keep an eye on her. Make sure she knows how to haggle…’

The discrepancy bothered her. Octavia frowned to herself as she peered at the cello. One or two backwater burgs she could… if not understand, then at least see happening. There were sadly plenty of tribalists about. But for years…

“Octavia? Are you alright?”

The thoughtful Earth Pony jumped slightly as her thoughts were interrupted; Nightsong’s big purple eyes were looking at her nervously. The mare could do the puppy dog stare with the best of them. Octavia smiled gently and nodded, ears perking back up.

“I’m fine, dear,” she lied, “Was just going over what we need. Come along, I’ll show you to the market…”

Nightsong had to admit, the Ponyville market was one of the better markets that she had found outside of the big cities! The town square was efficiently carved up into little sections for each stall, most of them selling various fruits and vegetables from the farms around the town, fried street vendor food, and the usual hoofmade goods from craftsponies around town. The storefronts were carefully left unblocked, so their signs could be seen by those ponies on the street.

“There is a music store here,” Octavia piped up, grinning as the batpony jumped a little, “But the only instruments they sell are recorders. I imagine High Standards will be more than happy to have somepony providing instruments to ponies here.”

Possibly, but… Nightsong bit her lip. Competition was generally bad. Especially if Nightsong set up a stall- would ponies here chose a batpony over… well, she was not sure what High Standards was. Maybe an Earth Pony?

“Howdy, Octavia!” A loud, cheerful voice with a distinct rural Equestrian burr shouted- and it took everything Nightsong had not to jump.

Instead, she curiously peeked across the road; the shouter was an Earth Pony manning what appeared to be a fruit selling stand. Nightsong’s eyes widened slowly as she eyed the apples on display, stomach cramping. Fruit was something of a staple in most Earth Pony towns, the kind depending on the climate and what farms in the area grew. But as she approached the stand, she could honestly say that she had never seen better apples. So ripe and plump, juicy-looking…

“Uh, miss?”

Nightsong bit back a curse as she glanced up at the stallmare; she was a little taller than Nightsong, and broader too, giving her a bemused grin and look. Her blonde mane had been tied back and tossed over one shoulder, and her orange coat was puffy and somewhat dirty from a days work. Bright green eyes peered at the batpony curiously, and Nightsong took a moment to steel herself. Talking to pretty mare. Gulp.

“Sorry about that, miss,” she replied quickly, managing a quick, apologetic grin, “I’m just a little hungry.”

A good-natured chuckle bubbled out of the mare, and she gave an understanding nod.

“I get’cha, miss,” she teased, pushing an apple towards her, “One bit per apple.”

Nightsong blinked, a little surprised at the low price, but quickly fished out a bit from her coin purse. ...she really needed to go cash out that note. The orange Earth Pony took the bit with a cheerful nod and a practiced slide of hoof, the other hoof sliding over the apple. The now quite cheerful batpony snagged the snack and hopped back from the stall, though she paused sheepishly at a grinning Octavia.

The earth pony had snatched a pear from a nearby stand, who’s stall-stallion shot good-natured smirks at the orange mare, likely for “stealing” some business from her competition. Nightsong could hear Octavia’s giggles as the batpony latched onto the apple with her thin, hollow fangs, eagerly sucking the apple’s juices- though without any loud slurping. Non-batponies found that rude.

“We may have to wait for a few minutes,” Octavia told her once Nightsong had finished her snack and snapped down the flesh and core of the apple, “Some of the shopkeeps haven’t quite opened up yet.”

Nightsong nodded, curiously following the earth pony as she led her roommate over to a nearby park. It had seemingly been built to cater to those ponies eating at one of the vendor stands, or from several of the nearby restaurants. Nightsong smiled happily as she took in the many scents coming from the establishments, and settled down carefully on a park bench, legs folded under her.

Octavia had settled across from her, daintily nibbling away at the bright green pear, ears laid back in pleasure. It was a companionable silence; Nightsong was quite happy to just listen to the sounds of the market and the wind blowing through the trees that had been planted around the village. But after a few minutes of this, a thought reared in her head, and she peered curiously at Octavia.

“Yes, Nightsong?” Octavia spoke, having caught the young batpony’s questioning gaze, and giving her a little grin in response, “Bit for your thoughts?”

“A-actually, I was wondering, uh,” Nightsong spluttered a bit, doing her best to control her treacherous blush, “How did you and V-vinyl meet? If that’s alright to ask!”

Octavia blinked, but smiled at that question, giggling quietly before quickly finishing off her pear.

“It’s perfectly fine to ask, Nightsong,” she replied warmly, reaching into her saddlebag and, to the batpony’s surprise, produced a cigarette holder and a magical lighter, “And it’s actually an interesting story.”

Nightsong stared at the posh, regal Earth Pony as the flame leaped out to light the cigarette; a deep breath in and out, aromatic smoke leaving Octavia’s nose and mouth, to curl around her muzzle and ears. There was a playful twinkle in her violet eyes.

“We met at a political rally. The first major rally for homosexual rights in Equestria, in fact. It was in Canterlot, at the entrance to the Council grounds. Oh, you should have seen it, Nightsong. There were thousands there, from all over Equestria. From all the tribes, all walks of life…”

She winked at her batpony friend, “As you can see, with Vinyl and I. I had led the Symphony down to join them; we were all from higher positions in society, and we wanted to use our privilege and voice to help. But perhaps we were a bit… too loud.”

Nightsong blinked and tilted her head thoughtfully, “Did something happen?”

It was hard to imagine Octavia causing trouble, even at a rally! But Octavia grinned at her almost mischievously.

“Well, yes, something did. I had gotten pushed up the forefront of the line. The Council had their own personal guards in front of the Grounds, while the Police-Ponies and Royal Guard were kept to the sides. Their guards were not like police, I’m afraid. I was struck by a blinding force spell when they charged the protest line.”

She held up a hoof to forestall Nightsong’s stunned squeak and questions, still grinning herself, “And that’s how I met Vinyl. You do not want to see that DJ angry. She knows more defensive spells than you’d think. But she dispelled the blinding spell and kept the guard off me, brought me back to her group of friends, while the Royal Guard broke up the riot.”

Octavia closed her eyes and smiled gently, “She and her friends took care of me for a few days while things blew over. Learned alot about each other.”

“How… how long after that was it before you courted?” Nightsong was smiling at her friend happily, a little misty eyed at the image of Vinyl defending Octavia, like out of a story!

“A week.” Octavia smirked at Nightsong’s dumbstruck look, “I invited her to a recital in Manehatten, and she asked me out right after. Moved in together for the first time two weeks after that.”

She gave a little shrug and a quiet, tinkling laugh, “Vinyl and I don’t like to waste time, when we want something. Life is too short for that.”

“I’m… I’m glad you found happiness, Octavia,” Nightsong replied after a moment’s thought, giving her a sheepish little grin, “And thanks for telling me. That’s a heck of a meet.”

The slender Earth Pony hopped off her bench and grinned, using her tail to wave Nightsong along as she headed for one of the shops nearby, “It’s par for the course with Vinyl Scratch. I have never been bored with her around. You’ll see, my dear.”

Nightsong was rather glad that Octavia had turned at that moment, and was unable to see her slight stumble, or the way her wings gave a little flutter.

My dear?

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