Flats

“We shall reconvene tonight, Anon? Say, 6:00?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Good. You already know what I want. Do not be late.”

You blink as, in a manner somewhat unlike her, Octavia Melody stands on her hind hooves, presses her forehooves against your chest, and places a quick kiss on your cheek. Then, just as quickly as she did so, she drops right back down, turns around, and saunters away, disappearing into the busy streets of the Ponyville Market.

“What a mare,” you mutter to yourself as you try to calm the furious beating of your poor, lovestruck heart. “6:00. That’s…” You blink again as you glance down at your watch. “That’s not long at all. That’s not long at all!”

You place your head in your hands, frantically looking around for some sort of solution to your newfound dilemma, but finding no such thing.

You are Equestria’s only human. Although you’ve been here for a few years now, you’re still getting used to some of this world’s holidays. Some, like Winter Wrap Up, are an entirely new experience, something your status as an alien makes all the more difficult to understand and fit into. Others, like Hearth’s Warming, have more obvious parallels to the life you left behind, making them much simpler to grasp. Hearts and Hooves Day, however, is difficult for an entirely different reason.

You’ve never had a romantic partner, let alone a marefriend.

Enter Octavia Melody, a dignified musician and all-around incredible mare. The two of you met at a local concert, a collection of different musical groups performing to raise funds for Ponyville Park, which had been almost entirely levelled after one of Princess Twilight and her friends’ usual magic-filled escapades. You opted to perform a song from your old world, impressing many in the crowd with the fantastical implement known as “fingers” being used on a guitar. You’re not great, but you blew them away regardless.

And that is what caught the attention of the prettiest girl you’ve ever seen.

You’ve been together for just under a year, and things have been slow. She’s very quiet and polite, and while she isn’t entirely stoic, she’s also not the best at expressing her emotions. You’re still not very good at telling what she wants, and you’ve upset her more times than you can count. Still, the fact that she hasn’t left your awkward and bumbling self must mean something, right?

And now the two of you have a Hearts and Hooves Day date tonight, where she expects you to “know what she wants.”

Hm.

“Vinyl!” You pound on the unassuming wooden door with a closed fist, trying your hardest to not look as panicked as you feel. “Vinyl, please answer the door! It’s life or death!”

Finally, the door creaks open just a smidge. From the darkness on the other side, you can see light reflect off of a pair of stylized purple sunglasses, ones that you are all too familiar with.

“Hi,” you awkwardly wave. “C-can I come in?”

The mare frowns before taking a step back.

“Thank you.”

You follow her into the quaint home, its interior seemingly split right down the middle. You’ve been here dozens of times, of course; It belongs to Octavia, as well as her roommate and best friend, Vinyl Scratch.

Vinyl closes the door behind you, her furrowed brow and downturned expression obvious even through her obfuscating glasses. She looks you up and down, clearly trying to figure something out before you can share your problem.

“Okay, so, I might have lied a teensy bit about it being life or death, but this is still a really big problem!”

You can’t see her eyes, but you can feel in your heart that she just rolled them at you.

“Look, Tavi wants me to get her something specific for Hearts and Hooves Day, and she expects me to know what that is, but I don’t! Please, please tell me you know something about what it is!”

She rests her head in her hoof as she appears completely unimpressed. After a moment, she taps that hoof against her chest before rolling it in place, clearly attempting to tell you something.

“She wants a new tie?”

Vinyl shakes her head.

“She wants… oh.” You clear your throat awkwardly before mindlessly straightening out your shirt. “It needs to come from the heart.”

She tilts her head at you in genuine surprise.

“What? Did you think it’d take me the whole one-shot to realize the answer is the most cliché one? I’ve seen a romance movie before, Vinyl.”

She gestures towards you wildly, her hooves flailing as if to say “why ask me for help, then?!”

“Because, Vinyl, I am stupid.”

You get a single eyebrow raised at you in response.

“...Actually, can I ask you for another favor?”

She tilts her head. That isn’t a no!

“Can you, uh… you know… do something tonight?”

You can feel her eyes narrowing at you behind those glasses again. A cold sweat forms on your brow as you hesitantly continue your thought.

“You know, so Tavi and I can have some privacy? P-please?”

She stares at you for a long, tense moment. You stare right back, your body stiff enough that you could probably be mistaken for a human-shaped lamp. Finally, she responds to your request by holding out her hoof face up.

“...Ugh, fine.”

Rolling your eyes, you slap about twenty bits into her hoof. She smiles at you and nods a single time before grabbing her headphones that were hanging conspicuously on a coat rack and disappearing out the door and into the unknown.

Man, she’s cool.

“...”

“...”

“You didn’t think this through, did you?”

“No, no I did not.”

You sit on Octavia’s sofa, awkwardly staring at her now that she’s walked through the front door of her own house. You hadn’t really considered the fact that she would want to come here first to get ready, nor the fact that you hadn’t even coordinated where you’re going to meet up with her to begin with. Thus, that she’s avoiding your gaze with red cheeks and a sweaty mane is all the information you need to know how badly you already screwed this up.

“I, uh… I got Vinyl out of the house.”

“Lovely,” she sighs as she sets a bag of groceries down on a nearby table. “We can spend all of Hearts and Hooves Day in my living room.”

“I’m sorry, Tavi.”

“No, no, I expected as much.” Without looking at you, she walks right past the sofa and begins heading down a connected hallway. “If you don’t mind waiting, I’m going to freshen up a bit. Be a dear and stay right there, won’t you?”

“Y-yeah, I can–”

The door to the bathroom shuts before you can finish, leaving you to curse under your breath to yourself. This was an awful idea.

Waiting for her to get out of the shower feels like an eternity, not helped by the fact that ponies take a very long time to dry. However, she does eventually step out of the bathroom. You face away from her, listening to the sounds of her hoofsteps coming ever closer until they stop directly behind you. You hide a wince, expecting her to start scolding you at any time.

Instead, you feel an unbelievably soft and smooth fur coat rub itself against the side of your head before a smooch is placed on your cheek.

“T-Tavi?”

“Hmhm. Never change, Anon.”

She circles around the sofa to face you properly, at which point you notice that she’s done her makeup. She usually makes an effort to look nice when she goes out, but her current appearance is complete with a long, flowing, scarlet dress that clings to her figure and a matching shade of eye shadow that seems to shine ever-so-slightly in the dim living room. You open your mouth to speak, only succeeding in stuttering as she finds her place on the sofa next to you.

“What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?”

“I-I just… I thought you’d be mad.”

“Well, to be fair, I did give you a time and not a location. I sort of assumed we’d meet at your place, but this really is just as much on me as it is you.”

“No, I should have had the common sense to–”

“And since when do you have common sense?”

She giggles at her own jab at you. It’s light, airy, and absolutely adorable, coaxing a smile out of you as well.

“You just like seeing me struggle, don’t you?”

“I won’t deny that~!”

She leans into you, pressing her weight against your chest and turning to meet you head-on. She continues forward, and while you expect her to go for a kiss, she instead nuzzles her nose gently against your own. It’s the cutest thing you’ve ever seen, and you can feel your cheeks burning at the display of affection.

“By the way, did you get me what I wanted?”

“Did… did you not want my love and affection?”

“That too, but I thought I told you yesterday that I’m in need of a new tie.”

“Dang it, I totally forgot about that! Ugh, darn you, Vinyl!”

You shake your fist in the air at some unseen force, making Octavia laugh even harder.

“Let me guess, she told you that your gift needs to come from the heart?”

“Y-yeah?”

“Typical,” she chuckles. With a shake of her head and a click of her tongue, she gives you a big, warm grin. “Still, spending the evening with you is a good enough present, I think.”

“You sure? Because I can still–”

“Yes, do please buy me a new tie tomorrow.”

“Right.” You laugh to yourself at the audacity before wrapping an arm around her. She’s already putting most of her weight on you, but you reinforce the embrace on your end, giving her flank a playful squeeze in the process and coaxing a gasp out of her. “Luckily for you, I’ve already got everything I want right here.”

“Oh, aren’t you a charmer?”

“I try,” you tease with false bravado in your voice.

“Well.” Her voice falls to a whisper. You look into her mulberry eyes and see a playful, mischievous glint staring back at you. “Why don’t you go ahead and unwrap your gift, then?”

“...”

You say nothing. Somewhere deep inside of your chest, you feel something more primal than any playful banter could provide. Choosing to give in to it, you grab Octavia by the head, ignore her shocked grasp, and press your lips against her own. They’re smooth and soft, and the warmth of her mouth washes over you as your tongue meets her own. She moans into you, closing her eyes as she loses herself in the sea of your affections. With your free hand you pull her in closer, giving her backside another generous squeeze and relishing in how soft and squishy certain parts of this normally dignified mare are. Your hand slips beneath her dress, and you feel her tense up.

Cliché though it might be, Vinyl was right. She is all you need on Hearts and Hooves Day, and she’s just as content to spend the evening in your loving arms as you are to spend it holding her close. So long as it’s from the heart, that’s enough.

…As well as, perhaps, buying her a new tie in the morning.

“What do you mean I sounded flat last night?!”

Vinyl shrugs at her roommate, unable to hide her cocky, playful grin.

“You’re the one who told me to come home early!”

Vinyl, clearly quite proud of herself, simply smirks and disappears into the safety of her bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

Man, she’s cool.