Stargazing

The mare nodded slowly as she entered, thankful for Asterian's quick acceptance into his home. The least that could be said was that she was relatively polite, but her courtesy did not defuse the situation. The writer was having an inner conflict between trusting heart and logical instinct. They argued psychically back and forth inside of him, debating the issue.

How could you let her in, you idiot?!

Well, she can't really be here to hurt me, can she?

Oh, but she can! You still have a chance! Run!

Can't we just see where this goes first?

With the last words from his heart, he decided she probably wasn't here for ill-intent, and even if she was, she had not given him a reason to suspect it.

"So make yourself at home," he said, "even though what I have isn't much." The mare laughed at his comment, rebutting, "This isn't much? Starfall, you have a nice house." The stallion's ears twitched slightly after being called by name. How did she know who he was? He began to grow slightly nervous, although still visibly concealing his anxiety. "If you don't mind me asking," he pried, "Who are you?" Without apparent response, the veiled mare asked, "May I sit here?" He motioned for her to, and as she was sitting, she began to explain herself to him. "You're probably wondering how I know you..."

No kidding.

"... but I had gone to the market today to get some new quills, and... the store was boarded up. Nothing was there, so..."

So how do you know who I am, and why are you here?

"... and she told me who you were and where I could find you."

"... Oh. Well that answers one question, but... Who are you?"

The mare magically lowered her hood to reveal her white coat and aquamarine eyes, which shown brilliantly in the light of the room. Was she familiar? Asterian raised an eyebrow to her, "Do I know you?" The mare laughed again and introduced herself, "I wouldn't think so. My name is Octavia Winters." Asterian blinked his eyes at her, his fear dissipating quickly just by knowing her name. The name sounded familiar. Octavia, as in the musician? "Well, nice to meet you, Tav-" he began, but she had cut him off. Her nostrils flared up and there was a definitive spark of anger in her eyes. "Please don't call me Tavi. Not only is it weird, it reminds me of that... earth pony musician." One question had just been solved: she clearly wasn't the same Octavia that Starfall recalled. His eyes shot her an unspoken apology, but upon recognizing the look on his guest's face, he tried to re-route the conversation best he could. He still had one question that he needed answered. "So Octavia, what're you doing here?" She replied simply, "Well, since the shop's closed down, Miss Pine said I should talk to you about supplies."

Asterian raised his eyebrow again, only this time, he began to fill with intrigue rather than defensive curiosity. It seemed that with a few words, she had his full attention now. "Are you a writer?" he asked. She shrugged nonchalantly at his inquiry, somewhat annoyed that Starfall was asking so many questions. Then again, she thought, I did just invite myself in here. I guess he's entitled to.

"Not really. I'm an artist."

"Ah. Maybe that's where I've heard your name."

"I doubt it. I'm hardly an artist anyhow. Haven't sold a painting in weeks." This time, it was his turn to titter. "Forget fame. If you can paint or draw or sketch or carve, you're an artist in my book." Octavia tried not to laugh from the flattery, but despite her efforts, a soft giggle escaped her lips. Asterian's ears flicked gently against his head as soon as the noise had reached them. Her laugh sounded... cute. The mare went on, "You've probably heard my name from the other Octavia, the famous one..." There was a definite tone that hinted contempt towards the renowned cellist.

"That would explain."

"She's always showing off to those nobles, like she's their pet or something."

Once a few seconds of awkward silence had passed, he tried to pick up the conversational ball. "So, you needed supplies?" With a small rakish smile, he opened up a hatch in the floor-boards, revealing a small basement. Inside was nearly every luxury item he had, from wines to small yet precious gems he had acquired from his trips. The same light-venting crystals that were upstairs were also present in the hiding hole, dimly revealing the shape of the shadows to allow navigation. In addition to the small cellar area, there was a bookshelf much like the one in his bedroom, except this one housed a cache of art and writing supplies that could have well lasted him through a one-way ticket to the moon. Of course being assistant manager -- or at least, having been -- had to have some perks, one of which was working for supplies. As he began to descend into the hole, he asked Octavia, "Anything in particular you need?" She looked to him, levitating a short list of items over. "If you have any of these, Starfall, I'd appreciate it." The host seized the list in his mana grasp, and ten minutes later, he emerged from the room with several bottles of various colors of ink, several quills, and some sketching pencils. "So, uh... is this everything?"

She looked through the pile of items, every so often double-checking the list to ensure everything was there. Some few minutes had passed, and Asterian voiced a curosity that had lingered on his mind. "Why are you wearing a cloak?" he asked her. She looked up from her task with a clueless look about her complexion. "What? Oh, I thought it was going to rain." The writer snickered. He did not mean to, but he did. It was too funny. There isn't a cloud in the sky, he thought. Apparently, she did not entirely share in his humor, taking slight offense to his laughter. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, it's just... There's no clouds in-"

*Chasoom!* A deafeningly loud thunderclap sounded outside, cutting the quill-waver off mid-way in his statement. His eyelids drooped, but he retained his debonair accent as he said in joke, "Okay, so I retract that statement." The artist giggled again, causing Asterian to blush a soft pink color. There was something about her laugh that he found charming. He could not place his hoof on it. Was it cute? Was it relaxing to him?

She suddenly spoke up, "Well, thanks for everything. How much do I owe you?" She had evidently broken some sort of trance that had overcome him, his eyes having glazed over. Despite the fuzzy feeling in his brain, he gathered himself enough to voice, "No charge. Anything for a friend."

"No no, please. Let me pay."

"Really, I insist. There's no need... But it's pouring out there, you might want to stay here for a bit until it dies down."

He mentally slapped himself for his invitation, but he didn't have long to punish himself before his new friend spoke up. "Oh, I don't want to impose... I've sort of overstayed my welcome, haven't I?" The stallion looked to the ceiling, pouting slightly. "Not that I'm aware of." Maybe it was the dim light from the illuminating crystals, but he thought he saw Octavia blush pink at his gesture. "Okay then." Perhaps now they could get to know each other in a more friendly setting. "I'm sorry," he said with a regretful voice, "I'm such a terrible host. May I offer you something to drink?" Although Octavia shook her head as if saying, No, thank you, Asterian wasn't looking. He walked back down into the basement and came up thirty seconds later with an unopened bottle of Canterlot's Pride wine. After replacing the hatch on the basement, he went over into the kitchen, extracting two wine glasses from one of the many cabinets. It was only on occasion that he would drink, but what better occasion than to toast to good friends and great health?

The quill-waver brought the two glasses over to the coffee table and set them down with a soft clink. He magically uncorked the wine and filled both glasses half-way, smiling a little as he did so. Once the wine had been poured and the bottle re-corked, he floated one of the glasses over to Octavia, and although she accepted it, she did not drink from it. The mare silently stared into it, her mirror image staring back at her through the dark liquid. As Starfall took his seat, he laughed softly at his company's expression. "I haven't done anything to that wine, Octavia," he teased. She laughed half-heartedly, continuing to look at it with caution. "So Starfall, what do you do in your spare time?"

The question seemed to catch him slightly off guard. He lowered his eyes, mulling the question over. What did he do in his spare time that would possibly be relevant to the conversation? "Well, I mostly just write as part of work. I've always found it to be so releasing. To be able to just take a quill and write out your thoughts... it helps me to relax. Let go of reality a little. Other than that, just a little meditation, and occasionally I'll practice spells." Her eyes shot open to face him instead of the wine, and she began to devote all her attention to what Starfall was saying.

"What kind of spells?"

The stallion smiled at her, answering her question with one of his own. "Are you afraid of fire?" Octavia's eyelids, if possible, extended even more so. She stammered nervously, "Uh- Um... Sort of... This won't- This isn't going to do anything, i- is it?" Asterian shrugged at the question, taking slight humor in the situation. He took some advantage of her fear and shrugged at her question. "We'll see, now won't we?" At that point, his horn glowed brilliantly, and a golden wisp of flame appeared to separate from the burning logs of the fireplace. Octavia was terrified by its sudden appearance, seizing up at the sight of it and gasping. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." With her friend's assuring words that she would not burn to death, her breathing began to calm, and her initial reaction faded, beginning to give way to slight impression at the spell. The blaze-mancer focused himself, and two more fireballs cloned themselves from the first, matching its form perfectly. They shimmered in flawless unison, rising as he inhaled and shrinking as he exhaled. "I didn't even know unicorns could do that."

"Oh, it gets better than that. Watch..."

He began to rotate the fireballs around themselves. With each revolution, they gradually picked up momentum as they continued their waltz around each other. Eventually, they got to moving so fast that, to both Starfall and Octavia, they formed a single ring of fire, but maybe that was because they had formed a ring. The stallion jostled the blazing band around the room, allowing it to ricochet off of several of the walls before landing into the fireplace with a hiss.

Although the ring had been made of sheer heat, it left no burn markings anywhere. Thermal control also involves thermal barriers. As Octavia looked at him dumb-founded, he said, "It's really nothing. It's just something I do to pass time." Octavia had a mixed look of both awe-stricken impression and complete fear. She retorted, "B-b-but that's not nothing! That was amazing!" Starfall just sat down with his same debonair tone in his voice. "I don't like the spotlight, but I don't like being backstage either... Somewhere in the middle is where I prefer."

Octavia began to trust Starfall a little bit more. True to his word, he did know what he was doing. She looked back down at her crystal glass and took a sip from the wine. The taste of the sweet liquid was exquisite, and the texture was like satin that freely flowed down her tongue. "This wine is delicious, Starfall. Where'd you get it?" She then looked over to the bottle, and once she had read the label to its fullest, she burst out laughing at her own mistake. The two continued on, sharing stories and joking like old friends.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun shown brightly through the windows as Asterian began to wake. As soon as his sensory receptors came back online, he felt himself bombarded by a splitting headache. He opened his eyes to find that his vision had been blurred, but through the fog, he could see a half empty bottle of Applejack Daniel's sitting on his bed-side table, and it dawned on him the cause of his migraine and impaired visuals. He felt a warmth coming from behind him, and almost on cue, he heard a "Mmm..." from that direction. Oh dear Celestia, he thought. Please tell me that's not who I think it is... Sure enough, after a dreadful period of not wanting to look, Octavia Winters lay beside him, smelling of the same exact aroma as that of the whiskey beside the bed. Asterian turned to stone at the sight of his more-than-friend as she lay peacefully on the bed. How could things possibly escalate that quickly between them?

        Starfall tried to rouse himself and bring about an escape. Maybe he could sneak into the guest bedroom, pretend he was asleep, and then, using his writing prowess, work up a story. From the stench of alcohol on the both of them, his lie might even convince himself into that story. He crept his way out of the bed, making as little noise and shifting his weight as little as he possibly could. He tip-hoofed his way towards the door, but he had forgotten something. A loud creaking noise sounded as he hit a spot in the floorboards. Buck.

        Octavia began to stir, and Asterian sighed in defeat. He knew he had been caught. The mare rose from the bed, and once she opened her eyes, she gasped at the stallion standing in front of her. "Starfall?! Wha- H- WHAT?!"