Octavia vs Trains
Light seeped through the foggy morning air, illuminating the dirty city of Coltago in a light grey haze that would in later years become commonplace in the city. Yet despite this the city went on as it always did, business ponies dressed in suits, ties and dresses (which is silly in its own right as most ponies don't bother with clothes) made their way to jobs while wishing they were anywhere but here. Waitresses made morning coffee and delivery colts delivered papers for a pittance.
All of whom wished that they could be like a certain cellist mare, tucked and snuggled in her warm bed, sunlight softly filtering through the window of her small yet relatively comfortable second floor apartment. Light jazz played quietly from a gramophone in the downstairs lobby.
'Yes it was the perfect morning,' thought Octavia as she dozed, 'nothing could possib-’
HOONNNKKK
Octavia screwed her eyes ever tighter as the train went past her window at what seemed to her at 10,000 decibels at far too early.
Octavia lay there in pain, waiting for the hell beast to pass by. And waited, and waited, eternity stretched by with an awful racket made from the wheels of the train clattering and screeching on the old rail line that passed above the street and inconveniently, right outside Octavia's window.
Now Octavia was usually quite a busy pony. Being the lead cellist in an orchestra with the obligation to the social scene of the Coltago high society and that of her friends in the orchestra left very little time for much else. As a result the grey mare was often up at the crack of dawn and therefore immune to the trains torturous noise.
'Finally,' Octavia thought as the train finally passed, taking its noise with it and returning the room to its peaceful calm once more.
Octavia began to drift off back to sleep, absent mindedly thinking about her new neighbour and her eccentric personality and strange sunglasses.
HOONNNKKKKK
Anger boiled up inside Octavia as a second train thundered past the window.
A grey ruffled looking pony, emerged out of the cocoon of blankets, her charcoal mane a mess and her face displaying obvious annoyance.
"Of all things" Octavia started, with an angered scowl "you decide to be as loud as possible today."
Now that she was awake to the point that going back to sleep was pointless, Octavia took in the sight of her bedroom. It was an average sized room with her admittedly large bed crammed in, next to the window was a small desk, covered in documents and sheet music, and strangely a bowl of fruit.
Octavia pondered about how admittedly odd it was that she had a fruit bowl in her room. She never ate in her room and would come into her room to get a piece of fruit. She wondered if-
HOOONNKKK
However Octavia’s thoughts were taken away from her as a third train thundered past.
"Celestia damn it how did I survive here until now?" Octavia asked herself or she would have, if she could hear herself speak.
Rolling out of bed, Octavia trotted over to the window and shut it, dulling the noise slightly.
Leaving her room Octavia proceeded to opt for a similar pattern, ensuring that all windows were firmly shut in an attempt to dull the noise.
"Why so much noise" Octavia mumbled tiredly as she made her way to the kitchen for some breakfast. It was fine when she was already well awake as Octavia would put music on.
Octavia's apartment was not a fancy apartment as many assumed a mare of Octavia’s considerable calibre would have. It was simply furnished, her possessions being designed to be hard wearing despite their lack if use as Octavia rarely had a day to herself.
Octavia considered spending time with a friend today for all of 10 seconds while she ate her breakfast.
‘To Tartarus with that, it’s my day off for once I'm going to enjoy it away from people.’
Relative silence filled the room once more as the third train finished passing within a few meters of Octavia's apartment.
After the poor start to the morning, Octavia decided that playing her cello was the perfect stress relief. While playing cello was her job and many of her waking hours revolved around the stringed instrument, Octavia often found that playing what she wanted to in her own time was the most relaxing activity there was.
Picking the cello up Octavia began to play a simple tune, adding to it as her mood dictated. Feeling each note take away the stress and loosen her tight muscles, despite having only just gotten up for the day. And the surrounding sounds faded away.
HOONNKKKK
There was a screech as the music abruptly cut off, Octavia's eyes snapped open in anger as she was once again interrupted.
"You son of a whore!" Octavia burst out in final frustration as the train clattered on the tracks. Uncaring that its mother, (a kind, single mother who had designed this particular model of train long ago) was insulted.
Octavia ground her teeth, as she tried to calm herself. 'It was only a train' she thought. ‘It’s not as if it’s doing it on purpose.' Perhaps it’s time to move if this is how it is to be on a day off.
Figuring that she may as well go out until the rush hour timetable ended, lest she have her whole morning be ruined by that ungodly noise. Octavia walked back into her room to get dressed not that there was much to put on. But Octavia never left home without one of the many pink bowties she owned. So much so that it had become a defining feature of hers.
It always took time for Octavia to put her bowtie on as hooves were not very malleable. So as she was about halfway through the task, Octavia would later reflect that the predictable happened.
HOOOONNNKKKKK
Octavia's hooves slipped as she jumped at the sudden horn, undoing what progress she had made.
As her bow-tie slipped of her neck and fell to the floor, Octavia trembled in rage.
Her face scrunched up, Octavia stomped over to the window, throwing open the window and leaning out Octavia proceeded to give the offending train the what for.
"LISTEN HERE YOU STUPID MOTHER FUCKER, YOU SHUT THAT FUCKING HORN UP OR I SWEAR TO ALL THINGS HOLY, I WILL-"
HOOOONNNKKKKKK went a second train as it too passed Octavia's apartment.
Pulling her head in, Octavia grabbed the closest thing and let it sail towards the train with a following shout.
"DIE YOU FUCKING FUCK!"
Meanwhile, a middle aged mare, Eve by name was sitting on the train taking her to the same job she had done for the last 20 years. 'Same shit, different day' she thought gloomily as she stared out the grubby window at the city. Eve was not looking forward to accounting today. The work wasn't bad, it was just the ponies she had to work with.
How she wished that her day would get interesti-
SPLAT!
Her vision was suddenly obscured by the colour orange as a fruit of the same name attacked the train window with fury. Unfortunately, and fortunately for Eve the window was having none of it, resulting in the orange's untimely demise.
Coming to the logical conclusion as to how the fruit got there, Eve sat and thought for a moment, pondering at what sort of reason would a pony attack a train with citrus.
Author's Note
So train horns are universally annoying, Octavia agrees. also Eve's name and job is a reference to a game.
that's about all I gotta say on the matter. hope you liked it.
Air Heart out.
