Octavia tried to control the roiling knot in her stomach and took her seat with the rest of the orchestra, there was a murmur of chatter behind her and besides her, but she couldn't focus on it. Her mind was far away, mired in the day's morning, words shared between her and Vinyl that wouldn't stop resounding on her head. She was only snapped out of her reverie by the sudden silence around her, the conductor had ascended to his podium in front of them, tapped it twice with his baton, and the music was beginning.

Music... she drifted off again as it began, there'd been music that morning, too, though it had been Vinyl's savage, thumping beats, not her own, melodious orchestra. Blearily she'd climbed out of bed and- she became aware of the conductor's stern eye on her, she'd almost missed her cue. Controlling herself, she began to play her cello, though to her ears every tune was off, the tenseness in her stomach now seemed to radiate up through her ribcage, through her legs and hooves, to the very tips of her ears.

But she had to control herself, she couldn't give in, not here, not in front of everyone, not in front of the conductor. To embarrass herself so... it would shatter the delicate facade she'd cultivated, of being the cold, business-like musician. But... hadn't that facade already crumbled? Hadn't that been what this morning was about? That she'd revealed she was a pony like every other, with the same needs, desires and dependencies?

That morning... that conversation... she replayed it in her head now. Everything seemed to be silent, except for the reverberation of the bass through her stomach, Vinyl's lips moving in slow motion, the words arriving at her ears seconds late: "'sup lazybones? I used the last of the toilet paper, so if you gotta dump a load, you'll have to wait."

Octavia had needed to shit like a racehorse on laxatives.

It was too late now, the pressure was building, here it was, the end to her facade...

"Pfft."

They had to evacuate the auditorium and hang up air fresheners for a month.