Chapters You’re gasping for air as you try to stand up, struggling thru the pain and the fading rush of adrenaline wearing off and exhaustion taking over. Your arms hurt and your right fist feels like its on fire, Everything just hurts right now. Your legs can barely keep you upward with out falling over but you use sheer will power to keep from falling over as you raise your torso up straight from hunched over position. You can feel your Chest burn from the multiple spots where you were hit and consider one or two ribs are broken. “A small price to pay for what this bastard did to-“ you stop that thought from continuing as you don’t want to think about it right now. You limp over to the wall we’re a cheap thrift store painting was hanging, now fallen and broken on the floor. As you lean against the wall, towering over the pony you beat into submission, you tilt your head back against the wall to rest it try and control your breathing to calm yourself. God damn you feel like you ran a marathon through Hell and back again. You look down to the pony and just stare for a while. He looks far worse than you do but still, he certainly didn’t go down easy. His mane was covered in what could be correctly guessed as a mixture of blood and sweat from the both of you. He right eye completely swollen shut and his nose slightly bent at an odd shape.
“Your lucky you know. If she wasn’t here right now I’d.....well we both know how it would have ended.” That thought both pleases you and disgusts you at the same time but you didn’t care all that much. You were to tired for it to matter at the time. You move your gaze down to stare at his chest, it moves as he is taking in air. You sigh with relief but it only lasts a second and start to turn away from him, shifting your weight around so you can lean against the window that was behind you. As you stare outside your mind begins to fill with thoughts about this scenario. They all play out the same way though. How you could have said things differently. Some other way you could have handled things better. None of it mattered though at this moment, and that hurt the most out of everything that has happened so far. You turn your head to look at the stallion on the ground, your eyes still full of rage you have for this tiny creature. Still our cold. You scoff and turn away.
“The stallion is unconscious and I’m fine with it. All things considered since I put you in that state. ” You think to yourself as you run a hand through your hair. You wince at the pain as you pull it down to look at it. Black and blue as well as bleeding. You sigh with irritation more than anything else really as you inspect your hand.
“Hands probably broken....another small price to pay for this mess.” You think to yourself as you grip the bottom of your shirt and tear as best you can a small length of cloth to crudely bandage your wound. You don’t care about the shirt, it’s pretty messed up anyways. After wrapping your hand up you stumble just a few inches down the wall onto the window and look down to the outside street of Manehatten. The lanterns that light the streets help you find your pal in the sea of lights and other pony’s. A stallion who’s pale blue coat and dark blue mane you could spot anywhere and your glad you called him to meet you here when you did.
“SOARIN!’ you yell down to him thru a strained voice. Your throat dry and sore from lack of water. You put your weight om the window to give you support as he looks up to you and tilts his head confused. You motion him with your bandaged hand for him to come up to the room. “Bring some rope up here Soarin, something’s happened.” You say to him as you make your way off the window but keep it open for him to enter.
Now comes the hardest part of the night. Something you’ve put off for the longest you could have due to more shame than being hard-hearted. You slowly lift your head up and try your damnedest not to break down and cry. You look to the bed and see Octavia shivering in her bed, holding onto the blankets with her hooves like a newborn foal. Her hair is in a sate that leaves her signature Pompadour completely ruined, left in its place is a mess of tangled knots and dried tears. Her grey coat being all raised on end from being scared out of her wits and wet due to sweat made her look almost feral to you. Her eyes red and bloodshot from her crying and her right eye somewhat swollen.
You never thought anything could break you. Not due to you being a stone cold person but being that things rarely phased you anymore. But this? This did it, hell it made you feel so sick that your surprised you didn’t just cry like a baby yourself and lose it completely. But you stay strong, you can’t falter now. Your eyes stay fixed on Octavia as she sits on the bed. She doesn’t look at you but ahead in a thousand yard stare, completely shut down from what she almost experienced. “Octavia? C-can you hear me?” You say in a small voice and she looks at you but not really at you. Like someone lost in thought her eyes move toward you but after a few seconds back to where they were. The sight of her like this almost sends you into a furry of rage but now is not the time for that, you need to be composed for her right now. As softly and as carefully as you can you make your way to her on the bed, being mindful of her state right now. You cross the bed and sit beside her. She still hasn’t moved to look at you much less say anything.
“Octavia?” You say to her in a soft voice. Still no response from her. Tears start to well up in your eyes and you try to push them back. “God what have I done to you” you think to your self as you turn you body to face hers. Slowly you move your hand to her mane to try and gently caress her head to try to get her attention. She flinches at your touch and looks at you with wild glossy eyes which causes you to jolt back think she is being attacked again.
“NO STAY AWAY!” she screams as she is taken back from the touch of your hand. Violently throwing her hooves at you in an attempt to stop her attacker who currently is sleeping on the floor. You doge one of her hooves in time but the other hits you clean in the left eye. It surges with pain and you give a slight Yelp but pay it no further mind than that. Normally you would stop to grab your eye but you need to stop Octavia before she hurts herself. You manage to finally grab both her legs and after pining them to your chest you move a free hand to her face and hold her there to look at you.
“Octavia! OCTAVIA! Stop its me, its Anonymous!” You say to her in a strong but soft tone. She struggles a bit more and opens her eyes and slowly stops moving when she recognizes your face. Her whole body stops moving and looks at you, Eyes now more focused than before as she comes back to her senses. It’s the first time she’s really seeing you here tonight.
“Its me, Its me Tavi, I’m here now . Its Safe.” you say to her with a soft voice as you gently pet her mane in a calming manner, trying you best to keep her calm. You hand slowly moving her hair out of the way to see her eyes more clearly.Still very red from crying but those purple iris still took your breath away. Her eyes still focused on you, as if your not really here right now and that if she looks away you’ll disappear. Her body is still slightly shacking from shock and adrenaline as she started to regain her composure. Still You kept Your hand moving up and down her head to calm her down as best you could.
Octavia starts to Looks confused at how your there in front of her and starts to slowly look around the room, obviously looking for the stallion. She looks to you with those big purple eyes again, you never get tired of looking at them. Her eyes slowly going from puffy and red to their more natural appearance, save for her right eye that was looking slightly purple in color but it didn’t look too swollen.
“An-Anonymous?” she says to you in a soft tone clearly strained with cries for help. “H-how?” She stammers, voice shaking as she starts coming to. “Wh-why are you here right now? Wheres the-?” her voice stops before she even finishes the question. Her face said it all, the memories came flooding back to her in a full rush to her mind. She then looks to you with a horrified expression as the tears start to form on the bottom of her eyes. Her body starts to shake and shiver as her emotions start to come over her and she presses her head against your chest. Pain from before makes you wince slightly but you don’t let her go from your embrace.
“An-n-n-nonymous I-I-I was s-so scared.” She tries to say as she starts crying and shaking harder than she did before. She clings to your shirt as she starts to cry in fear of she had to go through. You let her cry for what seemed like an eternity as you sat there holding the pony. You don’t protest it. You have no right to. You pull your arms in to hold her tighter to your chest even while your ribs protested in pain you held her. Using your bandaged hand your run your fingers through her hair and slowly start to move it back up and down her head. You just sit there and hold her, like she was made of glass and that any movement or shift in your position would shatter her. Your tears finally start to flow down your cheeks and your vision started to blur. You just sit there and try look to the window, looking out into the city skyline and stars. As You sit there holding her you could feel your very soul begin to shatter. Nothing evil in this world could compare to what tonight had done to you two. And only one thought echoed in your mind that stung like a dagger in your soul.
“You have only yourself to blame for this, monster.” And it’s true. You don’t even want to deny it. You let that thought echo in your Psyche and take hold on you while you sit and let this tiny little pony cry her heart out while you just sit there. Defeated both in mind and body.
You gently move you hand through her mane, trying you best to calm her down. Soarin finally makes his way to the room and is shocked by what he sees. On the floor is a stallion who is unconscious and looks to you holding a grey mare crying. You look to him and then to Octavia. You turn to see his gaze. You look into his eyes but move your head back down and away from Him, ashamed. You shift you body to allow her to be cradled in your right arm even tho it hurts like all hell. She’s crying so hard she can barely breathe, gasping for breath and sniveling as she soaks your chest and arm in tears. She doesnt even notice Soarin in the room.
“Soarin.” You softly say to him, still not looking at him as your focus is on Octavia. “I need you to secure him and then get the police if they haven’t been contacted by anyone yet.” You pray that to Octavia still doesn’t notice him so she doesn’t get even more scared than she is. Luckily She doesn’t even pay any mind to him, completely oblivious that he’s even there in the room.
“But- but what about you?” Soarin asks as he makes his way to the stallion and starts to tie his legs up to make sure he wont cause problems if he wakes.
“Don’t worry about me man. I’ve got something I need to focus on here.” You say as you continue to look at Octavia who is slowly starting to calm down and is passing out due to exhaustion. Fresh tears still flowing from her eyes as she starts to sleep away in your arms. You gently pull the covers up to her to keep her warm. “It’s- it’s my fault this happened to her.” You say to Soarin as he finishes up his task. You move your left eye up to him and watch him work. His work was all finished. The would-be attacker all tied and even gagged to muffle and noises he would make. Soarin then moves the unconscious stallion to the bathroom connected to the bedroom with only one way in and out. He then locks the door as an added measure. He looks to you with a somber expression.
“Anon...that’s not...you can’t just...” Soarin tries to say something to prove you other wise but can’t find a way to do so. Either because he cant find the words or deep down...he knows your right and doesn’t want to hurt you even more than you are now. He looks to you and you to him. His face furrowed down into a face mixed with all kinds of emotions but if you had to pick one, sadness comes to mind more than others.
“You better get going Soarin. The faster the cops are here the better she and myself will feel.” You say to him with a small forced smile, knowing you feel anything far from heroic from the actions that you just accomplished a few minutes ago.
Soarin nods his head in agreement and flys out the window and into the black sky. You watch as your friend slowly turns from a Pegasus to a small dot that contrasts with the night sky slowly fading away. You turn your head to Octavia and look at her and the state she’s in. Her tears have finally stopped flowing and she’s started breathing normally. “Thank Celestia she finally stopped” You think to yourself. You continue to look at her. This small thing, this beautiful small thing was your world. A few weeks ago you would give anything for her, be it the sun or stars you’d give it all. Now....now you don’t even know any more. Not after that night. That damn, horrible night were both your worlds collapsed in a short 24 hours. You continue to look at her as you slowly move both your body and her to the headboard of the bed and move the comforter around her to keep her warm. Her eyes still running with tears but calm all the same. You move your thumb across her eye to remove them. And slow put your hand around her head to caress her head and mane. She smiles softly at your tough and nuzzles more into you. It gets a small smile from you but it doesn’t last. Your mind still runs with how the past few weeks have gone and your gaze finally moves from her to the window.
You sit in there in silence. The love of your life, scarred beyond anything. You, exhausted and broken from this endeavor. Your mind drifts into memory as you recall the past few weeks, Seeing it all unfold again in your mind. The only other thought to come into your mind as you remember the last few weeks is something you thought when you first came into the room. “How could I have let this happen?”
Author's Note
Been a while since I’ve written anything fan fiction wise. It’s probably not gonna be my best work so comments and what not are appreciated
You are Anon, the only Human in all of Equestria. Being a warm night during summer you would probably be asleep but you’re wide awake. Sleep never really came natural to you as you stared up at the night sky lying on the roof of your tree house on the outskirts of Ponyville. Right now you’re spending what should be a nice night of sleep on a night of your thoughts running wild in your mind. You reach into your jeans and pull out a cigar and lighter. For all it’s ups and downs you lucky you could at least keep up one normal thing from your life back on earth. You sit up and rest your back on the trunk of the tree that protrudes from the roof and begin to work the lighter to spark a flame. The cigar hangs from your lips with a slight cider and scotch taste to it.
Your fingers fumble with the spark wheel till you succeed in bringing it to life with a flame. You can feel your eyes strain to look at the small combustion but they adjust and you stare at it for a while, letting it’s light expand across your face and the trees leaves making shadows dance and leap across the night sky. Bringing yourself back to reality you bring the flame to the cigars end and let the flame do it’s work. You pull in air to get it started and snap the lid back in place snuffing out the flame and place it back into your jeans. As you continue to breathe life into the cigar you shift your position on the trunk so your leaning up against it to resume staring into the starry night.
“It was never this quite back home....I miss that somehow” You think to yourself as you suddenly relax your body as you blow out smoke from your mouth and settle into your seat. Your mind has been wandering more and more about home. Kinda gratuitous at this point since it’s been 7 years since you were transported into Equestria, and to a bigger extent Celestia’s throne room surrounded by guards, though all things considered it could have been worse.
“It’s amazing they didn’t just straight up attack me then and there. Seeing a creature they’ve never seen would have scarred most people- er ponies.” Your mind recalls the day of you explains who you were and more importantly what you were. Celestia seemed to understand and take what you were saying pretty well. Her student Twilight tho, slightly different story. You almost lost your mind trying to explain what a human was to her in the three hours taking to her about your kind. But after all that came the bigger issue that came across Celestia’s mind.
“So my student, how do we send out guest here back home?” Asked Celestia as you walked back into Her throne room with Twilight. You could literally feel the “oh fuck” moment fall over her as she suddenly started rambling about spells and what not to the point that you couldn’t even grasp what she was saying. You rubbed your temples as your head started to hurt trying to comprehend what she was trying to say when you stepped in.
“Your Majesty, if it’s alright with you. I’m fine with staying here.” You say to Celestia as she looks at you with surprise as much as Twilight does. “I never really had a place I belonged to, I feel like I could at least make myself useful here.” You tell her as you stare at her and shrug. You look upon a literal 9ft pony who controls the sun and your entire argument hangs on a shrug....ehh you've handled situations worse, granted a bit more normal, than this. A silence fell across the chamber as everyone fell silent at your suggestion. Twilights mouth moves up and down but no words were said. All of the guards looked like they were gonna have a stroke at any moment. And Celestia just looked and...smiled. Suddenly she started softly laughing. “I see no reason as to not allowing you to stay here Anon.” Celestia had said in a warm and caring voice. She moved her way towards you and you felt you body tense slightly as she made her way to your position. “I hope you enjoy our kingdom as if was your own home.” She said as she placed a hood on your shoulder and then continued walking past you issuing orders about your accommodations for where you will be living.
Your mind comes back to the sensation of burning ash hitting your arm and you jerk your arm in pain. “Ow, Son-of-. That hurts like hell.” You think think to yourself while you pat your arm to put the embers. When it’s done you have a tiny hole in your long sleeve shirt. You dread the conversation with Rarity later about this. You begin to stand up and you look up to the sky, slowly growing from black to a light blue. You’ve been up the whole night and groan. “Fucking wonderful, Vinyl is gonna kill me.” You say out loud as you rush through your bedroom window to get ready for work. You quickly try to change cloths while also trying to to trip and kill yourself in the process. New jeans, long sleeve t-shirt combo and a hoodie. You look in the mirror to see if it looks alright. You shrug and mentally say fuck it and run out the room but not before you double back and grab an instrument case. You look to the clock, it’s 5:25. You give a slight grin.
“Gotta be there by 6 and it’s about 40 min away. Challenge accepted Father Time.” You tell this to your self as you full on sprint towards Vinyl’s record shop. Knowing you had no time to lose you decide to use every single alley to your advantage to make up for lost time. Leaping over trash cans and mail boxes like an Olympian. You nearly took Derpy out in the process of your mad dash. Not stopping you turn your head to apologize. “Sorry Dd, I’m late for work enough as is.” You shout as you see a flurry of letters that fell from her mouth fall to the ground. She looks up at you with her golden cross eyes, shocked and was ready to say something when- BOOM. You run full force into some pony and that causes you to do a 180 flip over them landing square on your back. Luckily for you your case landed on top of you. Unlucky for you it hurt like hell when it did. You grasp your case with one hand and your head with the other. Slowly rocking side to side you try and power through the pain as you stand up. A splitting headache starts to form as you finally get to your feet as you begin to start making your way again towards Vinyls. You only stop to turn you head slightly to look at the pony you just tackled to the ground.
“ Sorry about that but I’m in a hurry.” You say to them as you go full force on sprinting to make up for lost time not even making sure that they are ok. It’s a small town, and your the only human around, they will probably find you and complain later. As you turn the corner you see Vinyl standing out side her store. You push through the pain and slide on your feet with one minute to spare. You double over and start breathing heavily since you ran like a mad man over here. Vinyl starts to say something but you raise a hand up to stop her.
“Ran..huff... far to...huff... fast and bumped into someone...huff ....sorry I’m late.” You tell her as you try to get your breathing under control. Once you finally catch your breath you stand up and look at her and she’s laughing to her self. “Dude, the store doesn’t open till seven. Your an hour early dumb ass.” She tells you as she starts laughing and walks into the store leaving you looking dumber than a sack of hammers. You groan slightly and waltz in right after her. Knowing full well that you day is just getting started.
Vinyls store is probably the one you spend the most at so it came to no surprise that she asked if you wanted to work for her. Records lined the walls and tables of musicians old and current around the store. Some beanbags littered the floor for customers to sit and listen to their favorite records or to just unwind. A small stage sat in the back with sound equipment for Amateur music night that was starting up again soon. The only thing that stood out was the coffee stand next to the counter, a new addition to the place thanks to you. Vinyl continued to walk past the counter and into the back room and you followed suit. The employee room was roughly the same size as the main store. Boxes of music lined the left side of the wall along with spare instruments and sound equipment. A desk with a literal mountain of papers sat under a window looking ominously at you. Next to that was a small cot and pillow worn down with use but considering you didn’t sleep it looked like the worlds comfiest bed. You eyes continued to stare at it and only Vinyls voice snapped you out of it.
“You doing alright A? You can take a power nap if you want. Store doesn’t get super busy till later so you have two hours to kill.” She says as she sets her coffee and headphones down on the desk as she turns to look at you. You only stare back and sheepishly nod your head as the rush of exhaustion finally hits you from your night of reminiscing and marathon run hit you. You gently set your case down at the foot of the cot and collapse into the pillow with a thump. You can feel sleep slowly starting to take over you as you look to Vinyl starting to work on the mound of paper work listening to her music. You silently thank her with a smile and allow sleep take over you.
Two hours go by exactly and your woken by someone shouting and screaming in the next room which promptly causes you to jolt and fall out of bed. “Ow, Damn it on my head again. Damn things gonna cave in one of these days I swear.” You absentmindedly think to yourself as you stretch and walk into the main store. You see Vinyl listening to some pony on a bean bag chair yell about someone running into her this morning. You don’t really give it much thought as you march over to the coffee machine and wait for your cup of vigor to finish brewing.
“I just can’t believe that idiot didn’t see where he was going. And to top it off he didn’t even stop to help me back up. He just apologized and ran off. The nerve of some ponies I swear.” The mare says in a huff as Vinyl pats her back with her hoof. You listen to the conversation and have a weird Deja vu moment thinking back on what she said. But you couldn’t remember. As your cup finishes you make your way over to Vinyl to see what needs to be done for the day. As you come closer you get a good look at the mare who was talking earlier. Her gray coat basking in the sunlight, her black hair in a very well kept pompadour. A pink bow tie adorns her neck. You look down and her cutie mark is a violet treble clef. Her light purple eyes sparkled in the light as she looked at you. All in all she was very attractive, for a pony at least. She looked up at you and your eyes lock together. You couldn’t help but fall into her eyes as she stared angrily at you.....wait angry? Why was she angry at you? And then like a freight train it hit you. Well aside from her lunging at you into your stomach and causing you to fall over, it hit you. This was the pony you full body tackled this morning.
“I swear to what ever god is watching over me, if I fall over or get hurt one more time I will kill you.” You grab your gut as you now lay on the floor with her standing over you. You look to her and then to Vinyl who just sits over in her bean bag nonchalantly drinking coffee. “Yeah, thanks Vinyl. Big help.” You look back to the mare and say the only thing that comes to mind. “What’s up?” You ask her. Her eye twitches at your question, looking more furious than before. Yeah not the best thing to say in this situation. You brace yourself for what comes next Incase you get hit again.
“WHATS UP?!” she exclaims and gets closer to your face. “Well for starters I WAS having a perfectly normal day until YOU rand into me and caused me to drop my new composition onto a puddle on the street ruining it forever. THATS what’s up my good sir!” She continued to yell at you for about a good hour. Any customers that did happen to walk in were met with an angry glare and proceeded to do a complete 180 degree turn and walk right back out. After about twenty five minutes of her yelling at you she finally moves back over to her beanbag and slumps into it, a look a anger and sadness taken over her. You sit up and rub your head. Sure you feel bad about it but there really isn’t anything you can do to make this right. You just sit there and look down at the floor feeling guilty about ruining her work.
“He can help you write a new one Octavia.” Vinyl says as she grabbed what could possibly be her fourth cup of coffee she grabbed during that whole confrontation. Both of you turn and look at hear as she waltz’s over to her seat and collapses into it. She continues to sip her drink as you both sit in silence. It seemed like an eternity till Octavia finally spoke.
“He can help me? Vinyl you must be joking.” She remarked with a scoff. Not gonna lie but that kinda hurt your pride a little bit. “What makes you think he knows anything about the music that I’m a professional in?” She says as she turns to you. You decide to stand up instead of sitting on the floor and try to protest but she cuts you off. “He looks like he can’t tell the difference between a crescendo or a diminuendo.” She exclaims with a huff and turns her head away from you. You stand there now just feeling all around insulted just decide to walk away from the situation.
“I’ll just, I’ll just be in the back Vinyl sorting music sheets and working on paper work. I’m gonna have music on so knock if you need me.” You say to Vinyl as you walk away. You stop short to look back at Octavia who still doesn’t look at you. “I’m sorry again Miss, enjoy the rest of your day.” You tell her as you bow your head and walk off into the back room and promptly close the door as quite as possible.
Vinyl can hear the music rise in volume as Anon begins to start his work. She sighs and look down at her coffee as she turns to look at Octavia. “Weren’t you a little mean to the guy?” She asks her as Octavia turns and looks surprised at what Vinyl has just asked her.
“Excuse me?” Octavia starts to say as she turns her body to look at Vinyl more comfortably. “I’m not the one who destroyed a months work of music in twenty seconds just because he couldn’t pay attention to where he was going.” She says borderline on yelling. The music from the back room gets louder. Vinyl sighs again knowing he could hear her and was probably pissed off even more than he was, even if he didn’t show it when he left. She turns to look back to Octavia again.
“It was his first day on the job. And from how he looked like this morning he either overslept or didn’t sleep at all. He basically passed out on the cot in the back as soon as he got here.” She told Octavia who started to look a little bit sorry for how she acted but still help her ground on her work being destroyed. “Besides, you ended up messing up more than you even realize right now.” Vinyl says as she looks to the closed office door and finishes off her coffee. Octavia scoffs at what her friend says and begins to trot off towards her ruined work on the table that she brought with her.
“I doubt that very much Vinyl. Now then, on to more pressing matters.” Octavia says as she hands her the ruined sheets of music. “Where is this talented musician you were going on about. He should have been here by now from what you’ve told me.” She states as she looks out the window looking for the musician she spoke of. if the rumors were true about he was a very talented composer who was just starting to make a scene in the music industry who happened to live in Ponyville, but strangely it was no one she knew. Only the groan of Vinyl causes her to look back at her friend, who looked more frustrated than anything else.
“See this is what I meant by you’ve messed up.” She looks to Octavia even more confused than ever. Vinyl only shook her head and looked back to the door. “Anon was the musician I was talking about.” She tells Octavia as she turns her head slightly and noticed the color in Octavia face slowly vanish. “To top it off you just yelled at him for about a half hour and insulted him. Right now even I wouldn’t want to talk to him as he is now.” Vinyl says as she lifts herself off her chair and starts to start her days work, leaving Octavia standing there confused and ashamed at what she had done.
About five days have passed by since your one-sided altercation with Octavia. You figured it would be best not to involve yourself with her anymore since what happened. You spent the next three days after that getting up early, with decent sleep of course, and walk your way to the record shop. you look up past the town and up towards the purple hued skyline, the sun just starting to creep over the mountains. The sun forming shadows over the town reminds you to increases your pace. You don't really make any stops for anything except only to say hi to Twilight and the gang and any other friends of yours you passed along the way. Now normally staying away from Octavia would be number one on your list but as if on clock work she sat outside of the store and waited for you.
“Ugh, she really will not just let it go huh?” You irritatingly think to yourself as you get closer to the store. The first two days you snuck in through the back to avoid her. That got annoying how ever since she would storm in as soon as she would see you and try to apologize but you ignored her and went into the back office to escape from it. Now you just face it like a man and just walk through the front. Your about twenty feet away from the door when she catches you out of the corner of her eye and starts to fidget in place, her face starts becoming a visible shade of red with fluster. You look at her with annoyance and proceeded to face on with what was coming next.
“G-good morning Mr. Anonymous. Lovely day isn’t it?” She asked timidly, trying to force a conversation between you two. You walked past her and grunted, acknowledging her and nothing more. Sure you could have been the bigger person and tried to let it go but it seemed like she was just going over a prewritten script, not something she truly felt. You groaned and sighed as you fumbled with the keys. “Great, twilights speech on friendship and what not is starting to rub off on me.” You think to yourself as you finally get the key to open the door and walk in, Octavia close behind.
Normally you would have told her the store is closed but Vinyl said it was fine after that day, said she was a good friend. You figured to just leave it be and not cause any issues. You start to begin doing all the tasks you need to open for business. Octavia takes her spot right next to you during the whole ordeal, slowly wearing you down mentally as you trip or bump into her every other minute. She’s definitely persistent to try to talk to you but it falls upon deaf ears. You pull up your headphones from your pocket and listen to something loud to drown it out. Rude? yes. Effect noise remover to focus on your day? Also yes. What should only take five minutes tops takes about forty with Octavia putting your nerves on its last legs. Another bump briefly sends you over and your about to scream and look at her but hold it back.
You look to Octavia who on all accounts looks like she could cry she looks so scared and the look of sadness on her face gives you a double take. You groan and proceed to place your head on the shelf and lightly tap in rhythm. You honestly now feel like a complete dickhead now and decided that you need to put an end to it. As you Stand up straight and remove your headphones you see the ears on Octavia’s head fold down preparing for any screaming coming her way. You rub the bridge of your nose, close your eyes and sigh.
“Look, if your gonna keep pestering me to talk then fine.” You say in a soft tone, you try and keep as calm as possible knowing an emotional outburst wont help. Octavia looks up at you, seeing that this is the first time you actually said something to her instead of a grunt or just the silent treatment. “Go take a seat up front and let me finish here. Should take five minutes, maybe ten.” You tell her as you continue to put new merchandise on the shelves. You look down on her through your peripherals and notice that she has a small smile on her face and nods, quietly trotting up to the front.
You finished your work within about eight and half minutes. You stretched your arms out and looked at your watch, about forty minutes till you open. Your eyes move towards the front of the store, daylight starts to break in thru the window, brightening up the store in a warm amber like glow. You see Octavia sitting on a beanbag looking out the window, seeing the town start to wake up with ponies starting the day. “Alright, better hear her out and get this over with.” You softly say to yourself as for her not to hear as you make your way up front. Instead of sitting down next to her you step off to the coffee machine. You turn your head slightly and see that Octavia looking at you patiently waiting. You adjust your head back to look at the machine.
“You want one?” You ask her. The question catch’s her off guard. “I beg your pardon?” She asks. You hold up a cup with your left hand and slightly shake it. “Oh, a cup would be nice.” She says as she figures out your question. “ Also two sugars and milk please if you don’t mind.” Octavia says and slightly starts relaxes a bit more in her seat. You nod your head and fix her cup first. You may have been in a foul mood but you still knew how to be a decent host. Once both cups are finished you walk over to her and place the cup down on the coffee table. You grab a normal chair and move it over closer and position it so the back is facing your chest. You take a sip of the hot liquid and sigh happily. You then place your cup down to look at Octavia.
“So what do I owe this....visit of yours Ms. Melody? You ask her in a tired tone. Octavia fidgets with her body, trying to get into a position on the chair. Your eyes keep on her, watching her face as she’s trying to figure out the words she wants to say. “I came here to....apologize to you Mr. Anonymous.” She starts to say.
“Anon.” You comment abruptly. She looks at you suddenly being caught off guard.
“I’m sorry?” She asks looking perplexed by your comment.
“Anon, it’s what everyone calls me. I’m not big on formality’s so just call me that.” You tell her and proceed to take another sip of coffee. She nods slowly. “ Right of course, Anon.” She says again softly to herself, trying to adjust to calling you with a more personal tone. she fixes her position again as she looks up to you.
"As I said before...Anon." she starts, looking even more nervous than before. "I came here to apologize for my horrid behavior the day we first met." you look at her to see if anything she says is disingenuous, so far no. so you keep quite and continue to drink your coffee. "I understand that I was wrong to treat you as such and I want to apologize and move forward to starting over on a fresh slate." she explains how she’s been under pressure to finish a new musical composition she was commissioned for and that she was getting more aggravated when she kept running into a dry spell. The day that she finished it was the same day you ran into her. After hearing that you really felt like a major ass hat. Octavia finishes Her apology and looks up at you waiting for your response. You sat through her whole apology and didn't see any sign of her no being truly regretful, probably due to you not talking to her added to it. Being a man of your word you figure out your own response to her feelings.
"Well I can't say I've been the best person to deal with the past couple of days." you say offering her a small smile.
“Ms. Melody could you wait a moment please?” You ask her just before she leaves. She stops and looks back at you as you move towards her. “Do you by any chance have the music sheets I ruined?” You ask her curiously which leaves her with a bewildered look on her face. “Oh, I should still have them right here. Haven’t the heart to throw it away just yet.” She says to you in a somber tone. Her statement causes you to feel a pang of guilt in your chest but you put that feeling aside for the moment. “What do you want with it Anon?” She asks as she pulls it out from her bag and hands it to you. You gently remove the sheets from her and look through them. Seeing how badly the damage was to them made you regret not turning, back but you figured it was a shot with what you were going to suggest.
“With your permission Ms. melody I’d li-“
“If we are going to be formal with each other I’d like you to use my name as well please.” She states with a small smile and a whole lot of blush. You sheepishly grin and nod slightly. “Right of course, Octavia.” Her name gives you a funny feeling as you say it. “With your permission Octavia is like to keep your music sheets for a bit. I’d like to try and fix your composition as best I can.” You say to her in a hopeful tone. Her face can’t really figure out what expression to make so she stands in place wide eyed and slack jawed. After a few seconds she shakes her head and nods excessively. “Of- of course you can. If you think you can fix it then by all means.” She can’t keep her gratitude contained as she softly jumps up and down happily. She then realizes what she’s doing and composes her self. You can’t help but crack a smile knowing your making amends with her properly as fellow musicians. you place the papers on the counter and you walk with her to the door as she leaves.
“If you want to come to the theater house in a few days I should have it all ready by then.” You tell her as she exits the store and makes her way off into town. She looks back at you before she heads off. “What’s going on at the theater?” She asks with curiosity taking over her. You remember that you never told anyone yet as it was still a work in progress. “Oh well I’m working on recreating a musical from my world to preform here. Still have to finish the final stages of production but I’ll still have time to look at yours.” You tell her as you can feel your own blush start to form. Talking about passion projects always made you feel weird when discussing them with others. Octavia looks at you and smiles softly. “Well then I look forward to seeing your work then. Have a great morning Anon.” Octavia bows her head towards you and then trots off, leaving you there red as a tomato. Honestly your glad that you put your own pettiness aside and forgave her. She’s a great pony once you get to know her and you couldn’t help but see that she was indeed genuinely sorry. You lean against the doors bearing and sigh with relief. “Maybe we can actually become good friends after all.“ You think to yourself with a small smile. After about two minutes you get the feeling of being stared at and notice Vinyl just standing Right next to you causing your whole body to nearly jump out of its skin.
“JESUS Vinyl you scared the shit outa me!” You scream as you grab your heart and lean against the door being dramatic about it. Vinyl just stares at you and just sips her coffee without a care in the world. she then laughs to her self and smiles as she turns to walk inside to open for the day. “If I didn’t make my appearance known you would have stood there like a love sick filly. Come on man we’ve got work to do.” Vinyl makes her way inside and your left following her in feeling hot in the face. “Hey wait a min. I don’t have a thing for Octavia!” It finally dawns upon you what Vinyl had just said moments prior. She just continues to grins as she grabs more records with magic and makes room for new product. “Uh huh? And you totally weren’t staring at her flank just now drooling.” She remarks. You instinctively wipe your mouth and get red in the face Incase you did. You found out you didn’t and this causes Vinyl to laugh in response. Your face becomes even hotter and possible more red as you just start staring at the ground and become more flustered by it. Sure you may have just made up with Octavia but you aren't in love with her, you hardly know her.
"unless that coffee is causing memory loss V, you know I'm already in a relationship." If anyone would remember it would be Vinyl, she freely talks about how much she doesn't like her any chance she can get.
" Yeah I know the Miss Prim and Proper singer, I know your a thing. I'm just calling it as I see it dude.” She says as she walks over to the first customer of the day. You pick up were she left off on restocking and all the while, you couldn't help but have Octavia’s face float around in your thoughts all day.
Author's Note
I apologize for adding this chapter later than usual. Since this whole virus thing I’ve been working crazy hours since I’m an essential worker. Hopefully I can add more chapters at a regular pace