The Story of You and Octavia

Congratulations, you just saved Sapphire Shores' life from being crushed by a falling piano after she was visiting Rarity's Boutique!

Yippee! She was still brutally injured and can't sing anymore but... Yippee!

Even better, during your 15 minutes of fame, the Grand Galloping Gala was coming up! So as a bonus you get free invitation to go!

You should feel proud of yourself! Even though today you finally built up the courage to ask Octavia out on a date, who cares? You're going to the Gala! You were so excited that you bought a year calendar just so you can mark the days off towards the event. Who the fuck even does that anymore!?

But the wait is finally over! Today is the day of the Gala! You have your ticket, your nice shoes, your nice hat, you even convinced Rarity, the second most beautiful pony you've ever seen, to make something to wear for you. She doesn't even like you!

One problem though.

You're going by yourself.

Unless you know anypony going to the gala, going to the gala by yourself is probably the worst thing you can possibly think of. Watching every rich snobby pony talking to eachother like parrots is not fun, unless you have somepony else to talk to, which you don't. The only famous pony you know and can talk to is Sapphire Shores, but she's still at the hospital. You try to think positive, maybe you'll make a new friend while you're there, maybe you'll save someone else's life and be praised again, maybe somebody you knew before is going and will recognize. Yeah, maybe that can happen.

It didn't happen though. Here you are at the Gala, sitting outside on a table by yourself, very original, and you haven't even striked up one conversation, saved any lives, or met anypony you've known. All you've been doing is looking down at your watch and waiting for the Gala to end. Yeah, you can leave early, but you don't want to leave and that you've might've missed a big opportunity. You've been sitting for 5 hours, but to you it felt like days. You have 2 hours left, 2 hours left to do something special. But you don't feel like doing anything special, you feel like having something special happen to you. You look to a table in front of you. You fantasize Octavia sitting there, lonely like you are, writing in her notebook. She looks up to see you, waves to you, asking you to go and comfort her. Just the image alone is satisfying. But then you think to yourself, There are many ponies here at the gala, maybe she's here. I mean she looks like a canterlot pony, acts like a canterlot pony, she has to be here!

You start to search for her. You plead to Celestia to just at least see her, at least once and you'll be happy. You search every pony in every crowd in every ballroom in every section of the entire castle but you still can't find her. And you have an hour left until the Gala is over. You've failed once more. You walk to the nearest alcohol bar you can find, and ask for a shot of extra strong cider. You don't usually drink, especially this heavy, but today seems like that kind of occasion. But then you heard something. Well, not like you heard something, but heard something stop. It was the music.

Of course! Music! Octavia can be playing for the gala! You have to be quick though, she might be leaving for the night. As you run through the crowd of people towards the stage, you think to yourself, Why didn't I think of this before? Hopefully I can see her before she leaves!

You finally make it through the crowd, full of sweat and panting like a dog. The band is still unpacking! But, no Octavia. It's still a bit to crowded to see, and he can't go any farther since the royal guards surround the stage. You wait to make sure if she's really there. After a few moments, most of the band members were already gone, and you still don't see her. You let out a sigh and turn to head back to the bar. Although, as you were turning, you swear you saw something. A G-Clef note. It was too big from your perspective to be on a piece of musical notes, so it has to be...

Octavia! There was a pony in front of her and he moved when you were turning! You tried to see what she was doing. She was packing... A Cello!

I knew it was a string instrument!, You think to yourself.

She's leaving now, and heading towards the bar. Thank Celestia! You can drink and talk to the mare of your dreams!

Going past though the crowd again, not going too fast though so you don't sweat, you reach to the end and see Octavia just about to sit down at the bar. You start speed walking towards her, but slow down to not cause attention, then start speed walking again anyway. You're lucky she sits down right next to where you left your drink, so you have an excuse to sit next to her. You see her this time reading her notebook, with an odd bored look on her face. Maybe you can fix that. You'd usually plan by now what you were going to say, but no need, you have it covered.

"Hey, was that you playing the cello up there?" You ask her, surprising with a believable, non-forced voice.

She turns her head to you, she takes a while to reply, but during that time you're just thinking, Holy shit, holy shit, HOLY SHIT, what's she going to say? Does she recognize me? It's been a month how can she recognize me?!!!

"Um, yeah, that was me," she says to you, looking a bit relieved somehow.

But, you didn't really care, inside you feel like jumping like a little filly. She doesn't recognize you! Now you can start all over, "Cool... I thought you played great by the way."

"Oh, well thank you," To you, her accent was so sexy it made you want to melt into acid and burn through the floor. She continues speaking, "But, I was mainly just a background musician, the violins were the ones who mainly played the most lovely."

"Well, let me put it this way," You say slyly, "There were like four violinists, two bassists and two clarinet... ists, on the stage. You were the only cellist, and did a fantastic job all on your own, and that I respect."

You notice that word seem to get her attention; "Respect". By the look you see on her face, it seemed like it was a word she rarely heard someone say to her.

"And admire." You added for the charm, and because the silence was getting a bit awkward.

She snaps out of whatever her mindset was, "Well, that's very sweet of you."

You suddenly felt smoother than polished wood... and then you felt lucky you didn't say that out loud, "So, um, whats your name?" you ask to her, LOLing inside your head cause you know it already.

She grins at you, "Octavia."

"Huh, what a pretty name," you tell her your name.

She starts to giggle, and you suddenly feel confused, "Um, what is it?"

"My apologies, but that probably... is the oddest name I've ever heard," she forces out through her laughter.

You suddenly get a flow of memories of many fillies and teenage ponies pointing at you and laughing at your name. All the horrors of embarrassment come so quickly it leaves a blank stare on your face.

"But don't worry, I love it!" She gives you a small hoof punch on the shoulder to knock you back to your senses. It worked.

"I'm sorry, I'm uh-"

"Don't worry," Octavia interrupts, "You don't need to tell me."

You give her a small smile, she gives brief seductive smile in return.

Oh Celestia, you've just scored. One seductive smile, especially a brief one, pretty much means that mare's into you. Butterflies fill your stomach so much you feel like puking. Not a very a romantic thought, but it's your own sick mind anyway.

Both of you suddenly remember you still have drinks in your hooves.

"Oh yeah, we still have drinks. Ummm, to odd names!" You say.

"To odd names!" Octavia follows.

"Cheers!" You both take a sip of drinks, and immediately spit them out at eachother.

"Holy f-," You hold back your language, "This stuff is strong!"

"Oh damn," She says laughing.

Did she just curse? For fun? By Celestia she gets more beautiful by the minute, You think to yourself.

"It, burns too," she finishes.

You remember she spat alcohol on your very expensive suit, but you didn't care, you're with Octavia. You both end up laughing, and even when it turns awkward, it's more pleasant than awkward usually is. Octavia grabs a napkin and tries to wipe the spit and alcohol off you, "Yeah, um, lets just, clean that up."

You grab one too, "Yeah, I should too," You start to clean your mess on her too(...), "Yeah, sorry."

"No, it's fine, I spat on you first anyway," She replies, still giggling.

"No I think I spat on you first," You say to her.

"Look, just wipe it off clean okay?" She immediately put her hoof to her mouth when she said that, trying to hold in her laughter, "I'm sorry, I just realized how inappropriate that sounded."

"You don't say?" You say sarcastically, "You were the one who started rubbing me!"

That comment made her burst into laughter so hard most of the ponies in the ballroom could hear her. You couldn't help but laugh too.

"What is this stuff anyway?" She takes the bottle, still giggling, "Apple Sweet Depression Cider?"

You both look at the bartender.

"What? You both looked depressed," The bartender says to you with a "WTF?" face.

"Yeah okay," you spin your hoof next to your head mouthing "Loco in the Coco" to Octavia, causing her to almost burst into laughter again.

Once everything was toning down, you both stopped laughing and wiped the alcohol off your faces. For a while there was a pleasant silence between you two. It wasn't until you asked her something that would change your entire night.

"Hey, do want to, you know, get out of here?"

She gave you one more seductive smile before saying,

"I'd was hoping you'd say that."