Vinyl woke up fairly early. It was around noon, but considering how much alcohol was present last night noon was damn early. She had a bit of a headache but she was used to it by now. What she wasn’t used to was waking up tangled up in another pony. It was a bit of effort to untangle herself without knocking the young Alicorn off the bed, but she finally managed it.

She shook away her drowsiness as she moved to her small kitchen, preparing a glass of water with a couple seltzers enhanced with medicinal magic to deal with hangovers in it. She always kept at least a 50 pack of these things at her place at all times. This one wasn’t for her, though. She knew Twilight well enough to know she wasn’t a big drinker, so getting shitfaced like that meant she was in for a rough morning.

She levitated a bucket over to where Twilight’s head was nearly hanging off of the side after rolling over at the loss of her cuddle buddy. Vinyl noticed the subtle twitches and mentally counted down from 10. She was a few counts off, but the mare did finally slowly open her eyes. There was an audible grumble from the mare, and then one from her insides, before her eyes shot open and her body lurched uncomfortably as she couldn’t stop from vomiting. Vinyl was ready for it, though, and angled the bucket in her magic.

“Interesting to see that even the mighty Alicorns can get hungover.” Vinyl said when the bucket was nearly full and Twilight’s stomach seemed to finally be empty. There was a bit of a mess, the bucket couldn’t catch it all, and Twilight’s mane had gotten in the way a few times. Twilight weakly looked over to Vinyl and she blinked a few times, confused.

“Uh… V-Vinyl?... Where…? Oh, right…” She mumbled out, her head obviously splitting and her body still sore from expelling her stomach. Vinyl just lightly hummed to herself as Twilight tried to remember more of last night. The glass with infused seltzer was levitated in front of her and Twilight took it with a wing, not trusting her magic at the moment. She mumbled an incoherent thanks before downing it. The effects were almost instantaneous, Vinyl gave her a double. Her eyes widened and she flushed up in embarrassment.

“Oh, damn it all. I’m so sorry Vinyl, I knew I shouldn’t have drank that much… I threw up all over your floor and… and…” Twilight started after shaking the cloudiness from her head, but fell short as Vinyl continued humming to herself as she left the room with the bucket, the mess was already cleaned up. Vinyl had done so with her magic while the Alicorn was recovering. Twilight tentatively followed. Vinyl’s apartment wasn’t massive, but it was big enough to where she didn’t have to squeeze through doorways or duck to not dash her horn against the top of the frames. The Princesses would probably have a harder time of it though.

Vinyl continued humming the tune that was stuck in her head as she dumped the bucket of bile down the toilet, was scrubbing it clean with magic, was purifying the stench from the air with another spell, and lastly was getting the shower started. Twilight poked her head in and Vinyl finally stopped humming to speak.

“Go ahead and take a shower, you need it girl. I’ll throw something together for breakfast.” She said, finishing up in the bathroom and smoothly sliding around the Alicorn in the doorway to move back over to the kitchen. Batter was already mixing, eggs were beating, oranges were juicing themselves, and the two pans were heating up evenly. Twilight was actually stunned by the unicorn’s ability to multitask with magic. Vinyl noticed her staring. “What?”

“While doing multiple things with magic isn't rare, it’s very difficult to do multiple DIFFERENT things with magic, it takes a lot of practice and a lot more focus. It seems like you’re hardly even paying attention to what you’re doing, though.” Twilight said after a moment. Vinyl grinned wide.

“Well duh, how do you think I manage my mix table? Let alone the lighting, the atmospheric equipment, my drink, all of that. Years of practice and practical implementation. Go take a shower girl, before that shit dries.” The Unicorn said, motioning with her head towards the Alicorn. Twilight looked down at herself again and paled. She had forgotten she threw up on herself a bit too. She quickly nodded and disappeared. Vinyl just chuckled as she cooked.

“Perfect timing, eat up. A night of drink mixed with emptying your stomach should have left you hungry.” She said ten minutes later when Twilight came out of the bathroom, drying herself with a spell.

“I used some of your conditioner, I hope that’s ok.” She said as she sat down and happily took the first bite, but then kinda froze.

“Yeah no problem, it’s just the cheap shit… what’s wrong? I didn’t leave a shell in there did I?” The Unicorn replied. Twilight just quickly swallowed her bite as she shook her head and let her fork rest on the plate again.

“I‘m so used to spending the night with friends and we do this stuff for each other all the time… but, while we’ve been acquainted for years… I don’t even really KNOW you… I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done, but I have to know... why?” The Alicorn asked after a moment of figuring out how she wanted to word it. Vinyl laughed.

“I thought we got a little more than acquainted last night.” Vinyl snickered, but she noticed Twilight looked a little confused about that. “Oh I see, kiss me after a damn good dance and can’t even remember it? We need to get you drunk more often, you can’t even remember the night. Pff.” She said offhandedly. She couldn’t help but feel just a little bit hurt, though, and she didn’t really know why. She brushed the feeling aside as Twilight looked even more confused.

“I helped you out because you’re cool, and I’d like to KNOW you better. You brought up a good point, we’ve been acquainted for years, yet Pinkie and Dash are damn good friends. The rest of your friends aren’t really my crowd, and I thought you weren’t either, but after last night I’ve decided against that. And I also knew how much of a wreck you’d be in the morning, you aren’t the first pony I’ve taken care of after getting completely shitfaced, and I have to take care of myself like that at least once or twice a month.” The Unicorn explained.

“Waaaaait, I kissed you?” The Alicorn said after a moment, her cheeks flushing up a bit as her wings rustled in embarrassment. Vinyl snorted as she took a bite of her breakfast.

“Yeah, surprised the hell out of me. I kinda kissed you first though, then you downed your drink and kissed me back. It was kindof awesome, especially after that dance.” The Unicorn answered, rubbing the back of her head. She couldn’t help but flush up a bit herself, she hadn’t felt like that in ages. The memory was sweet in her mind. They stayed silent for a while, Vinyl eating her food as Twilight fidgeted and looked deep in thought. Or concentration.

“Oh damn it all!” Twilight finally snipped to no one in particular. She gave Vinyl an uncertain look. “I seriously can’t remember it… I remember the dance though, and being confused… Do you… do you mind if I look at your memories to see it? It should be easy to limit it to that.” The Alicorn continued. Vinyl seemed a little surprised by the request but shrugged, using a bit of magic to shield her mind and letting the memories of the night out fo the shield.

“Go for it, just don’t pick at the barriers. I’m not the best at shielding magic and I have some things floating around in there that even I don’t want to remember.” Vinyl warned. Twilight nodded and concentrated on the psionic magic to read thoughts. The two of them were thrust into a mental mindscape, Twilight knew some pretty fancy magic to do that. Normally you’d just look through memories and you’re lucky if you felt it. Psionic mages were kinda scary like that.

“I figured having you here with me to stop things if needed, or to explain things, would be a good idea. You ready?” Twilight asked.

“Sweet, go for it.” Vinyl replied. Twilight nodded and the night started playing out for them. Vinyl and Twilight let some of it play out, though they skipped around most of it. Twilight mused and even laughed lightly at the antics her drunk friends got into, as well as expressed concern for her own speed of alcohol intake. She was finally surprised at seeing her dance, especially from someone else’s perspective. She had been taking dance lessons for years, but she’d never gotten to more than a passable canter. This was beautiful, though, and she couldn’t help but smile as she saw Vinyl join in from her own eyes.

“It really was incredible… I haven’t seen anything like that even in the theatre halls.” Vinyl said softly. Their horns touched, then, and Vinyl felt the embarrassment fill her again. Twilight seemed like she was going to say something then, but watched as Vinyl kissed her, and then snorted as she kissed the unicorn back.

“Well that explains why I don’t remember kissing you, but I didn’t remember you kissing me, or our horns touching. I remember that feeling, Vinyl, and feeling it through your memory...Do you know what that was?” Twilight asked. Her tone was a little tinted with embarrassment, as were her cheeks, but her expression was very serious as they faded back to reality.

“I mean, touching horns is usually for super good friends and stuff.. But that didn’t feel normal. Did something happen?” Vinyl asked. Twilight slowly nodded her head and walked closer. Vinyl instinctively wanted to turn away when Twilight made to touch their horns together again, too many stallions had tried that with her when they got drunk. She resisted the urge though, and shuddered as their horns touched again.

“That… was something called Arcane Resonance... “ Twilight started, shuddering as well. Vinyl suddenly felt the urge to kiss her again, especially after seeing last night to clearly again, but refrained from that urge as well. “It usually doesn’t happen when there’s no magic being channeled together, but it’s something that closely bonded mages do… be they Unicorn or otherwise. It’s almost like the idea of soulmates, though I’ve seen it in siblings and friends. The Princesses have a particularly strong resonance.” Twilight continued. Vinyl’s heart kinda sank at that, though she wasn’t entirely sure why, but it apparently showed on her face.

“Something wrong? You’re not super bored of magical things like Dash is are you?” Twilight asked. Vinyl snorted.

“Nah, I love it sometimes. I’m not averse to learning but…” She started, touching her front hooves together in nervousness before shaking it away and looking back up with a bit of a smirk. “What if I told you I really wanted to kiss you again? That resonance thing has that effect on me I guess.” She continued. Twilight repeated the nervous motion, though her face flushed up before getting up and walking over.

“It kinda has that effect on me too…” She said, giving a timid smile before quickly pecking the unicorn on the lips. Vinyl snorted.

“Aw hell naw girl, you gotta give it a little more fire than that!” Vinyl said in response. Twilight was certainly not ready for the return kiss, and honestly neither was Vinyl. In the end, Twilight was practically in Vinyl’s lap and they were so close together the heat was almost unpleasant.

Almost.

“Whoa there girl, we should ah… call it there for now, you’d have to buy me dinner first.” Vinyl said, forcing herself not to stutter as her embarrassment skyrocketed at the thought of that particular course of action. A tiny part of her hoped Twilight would be totally cool with them going further, but experience and realism kicked in and she threw that thought from her mind. For now.

“Y-Yeah… u-um… right… S-Sorry…” The alicorn stuttered out, her own embarrassment much more prominent than the DJ’s. Vinyl gave her a lopsided smirk and levitated Twilight’s fork back up to her face.

“Eat, if you waste my food I’ll make you buy me more.” She said, her confidence returning. “And don’t you dare apologize for that, that was fuckin’ great.” She said, her smirk turning to a grin. Twilight gave her that timid smile again before returning to her breakfast. Her rustling wings were almost amusing to Vinyl if they didn’t betray her inner conflict. Vinyl waited until she finished before bringing it up.

“Alright, what’s on your mind? Last time Dash’s wings acted like that she was freaking out with nerves about her wonderbolts audition.” She finally asked while she absentmindedly levitated the dishes over to the sink to wash themselves. Twilight’s wings rustled again and her conflict showed on her face for a moment before she sighed and looked up at Vinyl again.

“Is this just a fling, or something? And this whole Resonance thing, I could be mistaking it for something else… I’ve never felt anything like it before, or these feelings flinging around inside my head.” She said, her look almost pleading Vinyl to have an answer. The Unicorn shrugged.

“I wouldn’t call it a fling, not yet. If that’s all you want out of this then that’s on you, but I don’t know what I want out of this until I get to know you better. I know the basics and all that, but we need at least one more night drinking together and another few meals before I’ve got you properly pegged. That resonance thing, though, that’s some strong stuff. I’ve touched horns with my sister and it always gave me this cozy little feeling that made me know she loved me. You though? It’s like an adrenaline shot that’s also saying ‘you better kiss the hell out of her right now, just look at that face. You want to kiss it. Do it.’ and I just can’t say no without getting sad.” Vinyl replied at length, trying to inject a bit of humor to maintain her confidence. Twilight thought about the answer for a bit before speaking again.

“Well then, I’m honestly not that much of a drinker but I’d love to go out for a beer or two and just talk. Not tonight though, definitely not tonight… But, I’d like to pay you back for all of this so I can probably talk the palace chefs into dinner on me. I’m not due back in ponyville for a week and since you don’t live there anymore I’d like to sneak in as much ‘getting to know each other’ time in there as possible.” The Alicorn suggested.

“Whoa seriously? Dinner at the palace? If I didn’t know better I’d think you were trying to be romantic.” Vinyl said, dramatically fluttering her eyes. Twilight snickered with a giggle at that.

“Please, I know about as much as romance as Pinkie does about poorly baked pastries. I wonder if either of the princesses would join us, we could ask them more about the resonance.” The Alicorn mused. Vinyl scrunched her face up at that.

“What? Naw, if we’re gonna be getting to know each other we can’t have a third wheel there. It’s gotta be like a legit date. Besides, especially if it’s Celestia it’d be like your mom coming with you on prom night. That shit don’t fly girl.” She retorted. Twilight shrugged.

“I suppose I don’t have to have every meal with them. We can’t do it in the private dining room then, I suppose we could just go to the usual dining hall like everybody else.” The Alicorn offered. Vinyl grinned.

“Sounds more like it, miss ‘I always dine with the most important ponies in the world’.” The Unicorn teased. Twilight just smirked and stood.

“You’re damn right I do. Anyways, I should head back. It’s already past one and I don’t even want to think about the shitstorm of paperwork I have to get back to... “ Twilight said and started grumbling incoherently about paperwork and that’s the real reason why she was resigning her crown.

“Yeaaaaaah good luck with that champ. What time should I head over? I went to the dining hall once for some noble’s sweet sixteen so I know where it is.” Vinyl asked.

“We’ll shoot for six. Just be prepared to deal with press. They’re already everywhere, but they’ll be looking for me specifically to get stuff on my resignation. If you want I can disguise myself, otherwise you’d be on tabloids with some stupid headline.” Twilight replied. Vinyl shrugged.

“I dunno, ‘Lonely ex-princess banging cute DJ’ sounds like a good headline to me.” The Unicorn said, moving a hoof across the air dramatically. Twilight laughed as she rolled her eyes before stepping to the door.

“See you at six.” She said. Vinyl waved in response and the Alicorn left. She felt herself slump slightly, already missing the mare’s presence. She shook herself again before pulling over her event book to see if she could reschedule a few things. If she only had a week with Twilight in Canterlot then she was going to make the most of it.

Author's Notes:

So this is a thing.
This is a thing that is happening.
Happening at 3 am. God I need to sleep.
Enjoy.