//------------------------------// // life is good:life is harsh // Story: What We Were // by folded_napkin //------------------------------// As Octavia walked through her now-lonely apartment, cleaning up the odds and ends from the past few months, she stumbled upon a book beneath a pile of papers. She looked at the old tattered book and flipped it over and read the cover, as she realized what she was looking at, a tear worked its way down her cheek. Against the sadness welling up inside her she decided to read what her dear friend had left behind. As she opened the cover a note fell out and onto the floor. She picked it up and it read, “Dear Octavia, If you are reading this than you have found my journal that I have left behind for you. I know our relationship didn’t work out in the end, but I recorded the entire relationship in this book. Hoping it finds its way to you, I would like you to read it. Just because we didn’t end up in the way we hoped for, that doesn’t mean you can’t remember the joyful memories we shared. With this I part you.” Your Dearest friend Lyra. Octavia started to cry but she forced herself to turn the page and read the first entry. “Octavia, I remember the first time we met, when I saw you on that day I knew there was something special about you. I Just watched your graceful movements as you walked down the bustling street. At first it was a weird feeling because until now I have never felt this way about another mare before. As the days went by I was working up the courage to ask you but I never was able too until that one day.” Reading this wasn’t what Octavia had expected to do that day, but once she found it she just couldn’t stop the tears of joy and sorrow that she wept. “That one day….I just couldn’t help myself from realizing that today you looked even more beautiful than I ever thought you could. That one day.. When I finally asked you…As you were just leaving the shop I walked up to you and asked…. Octavia was crying harder than she thought possible as she recalled that one day ...the day Lyra had finally asked her. “I was just simply overjoyed when you responded with a yes, I almost couldn’t contain myself because that this had finally happened. As we walked out together and down the road talking, I knew inside that this was very special and I knew I would cherish this forever….” As Octavia kept reading she cried even more, which isn’t how she normally is, She was wondering how much her friend had written in this journal so she decided to check. As she flipped through the journal she realized that almost every day she recorded something. For some reason something was bothering her, and then she realized that she had been sitting there for the better part of the morning, and between her cleaning and the journal, she completely forgot about eating breakfast. She stood up to go get some food but then realized that for the past few days, she was so sad when she busied herself with cleaning she also forgot to buy food. As she got ready to leave and go to the store she took a glance into the den and saw the book lying there on the table. As she forced herself to be cheerful, she walked out and shut the door behind her. As she walked down the crowded street, she greeted the few ponies that knew her. She walked further down the street and into the store and she was greeted by the friendly stallion working behind the counter. She slowly walked down the aisles taking the things off the shelves that looked even remotely appetizing, she then remembered how her and Lyra always used to come here to get groceries. As she walked back up to the counter to pay for the food, The stallion behind the counter had a friendly smile on his face. “Well hello there, did you find what you were looking for?” Octavia shrugged and handed him the bits, taking the bags of food off the counter. “Excuse me, is something bothering you?” Octavia forced a smile onto her face “Oh nothing, I am fine” She walked out of the store and sighed. Everypony around this part of town knew what happened, how could he not? As she walked back into her home and put the food away she looked at the book sitting on the table. With a sigh she walked over, sat down, and continued to read. “Seeing you just gave me this good feeling inside, like we were meant for eachother, I loved that I was able to see you every day to admire your beauty. I loved how we always were together; I even thought it was funny because every pony would know, If one of us was there, the other would be too. I just loved how whenever I would wake up you would be there, and how no matter what we would always stay together.” When Octavia noticed the date of the next entry she couldn’t help herself from smiling. She remembered that day pretty clearly, and she always would… “I am just simply ecstatic that you suggested that we should go on a little date out tonight. But as I was asking where we could go, you answered my question when you said that it doesn’t matter as long as we're together. After that I was just so happy, I almost couldn't contain myself. Once we decided on a place to go I was wishing that this night would just never end. I was thinking to myself, “just don’t screw it up“. As we entered the fancy restaurant I realized that you truly did love me, paying all the money to go to a restaurant like this must have taken some large amount of foolishness…or just plain love. As we sat down at the table we were surprised to see our friend Bonbon there along with her stallion friend sitting in the booth right next to us. As we talked she introduced her stallion friend: he had a light brown coat with dark brown mane, and she said his name was Braeburn. We all continued to talk and have a good time: we ate, talked ,and laughed together and all had a good time. “After dinner we departed from our friends and walked to the park. This was all a new experience for me, since I have never been to the park at night. As we laid down together on the cool grass we looked up into the night sky and watched the stars. Together we laid there for a while until I looked at you and we kissed. It just felt so good, kissing you in the park by moonlight. It wasn’t our first kiss but every time we kissed it just felt so magical, like it could just never stop. After kissing for about five whole minutes, we laid back onto our backs and gazed up at the sky. Just as we looked up, a shooting star flew across the night sky. As we looked at each other we knew that neither of us needed to make a wish, ours had already come true.” Octavia couldn’t help smile when she read this, She still remembers that night. She always loved when her and Lyra went out on dates together, but that first one was one she would always remember, It had a special place in her heart, and she knew it would stay there. “We got up slowly and made our way back to your apartment, on our way there we kept looking at each other and smiling. I loved spending time with you, just as much as I knew you liked spending time with me. When we walked in I couldn’t help realize how clean your apartment was compared to mine. I know I thought this every time I walked into it considering that my apartment was always a mess. When I realized the time I suggested that we should go to bed, and you gladly accepted the idea. We walked into your room and we settled ourselves into the bed. We embraced each other in one more kiss before you turned off the light and we fell asleep.” As she finished up that entry she realized that it was already midnight, and that she should probably get some rest. As she got into bed, she realized how lonely it was to be alone at night, and she knew that feeling would probably never go away… BEEP!! BEEP!! BEEP!! Octavia grudgingly turned off the annoying alarm. She wondered why she had bothered to set it considering she had nothing planned until next Saturday. She decided to get up and actually eat breakfast for once. She walked into the kitchen and pulled out of the cupboard a box Pon-E-O’s. Octavia wondered why she even bought cereal anyway, to her they all just tasted like soggy oats. Soggy oats and milk; not what she considered a breakfast but it would have to do. After breakfast she decided to take a walk through the park that her and Lyra would always go to. Remembering the time she spent with Lyra by actually going to the places they went to seemed to be more cheerful than the diary, but she knew when she got home she would be absorbed into the book for the rest of the day. She decided to take the most time possible before heading back. Walking through the park she tried to concentrate on things like the birds singing and other ponies she met that were there too. But in the back of her mind she knew that all she really wanted to just read the journal instead of doing other things. After walking around the park for a while she decided to go back home but then she bumped into her friend Bonbon. “Oh hey there Octavia its nice to see you.” “Its nice to see you too Bonbon” said Octavia, putting on the fake smile she knew too well from the last few days. Bonbon, always having a cheerful attitude didn't seem to notice that Octavia’s behavior was quite pathetic. “Anyways, why have you been cooped up in your apartment for the past few days” As Octavia explained to her friend about the journal that Lyra had left and what she had read so far, Bonbon had this odd look on her face. Bonbon sighed, “I knew you would find it eventually.” “What! You knew the whole time that she had left that for me?” “Octavia, everypony knew, we didn’t want you to be too depressed after she left.” Octavia let out a long sigh because she knew her friend was right, she would be very depressed if she read it just after Lyra left. “I know you didn’t want me finding it at first for a while, but it has been six months since she left--Six Months!, why didn’t you tell me sooner.” As Bonbon held back her tears Octavia apologized for being so rude to her. “Oh, its okay Octavia, I know that you loved her, and I probably should have told you sooner anyway.” “So Bonbon, have i missed anything in the past few days?” Bonbon with a puzzled look said “Octavia you should probably take a break from the journal and your house if you don't know what's been going on for the past few days” “Well have i missed anything?” “No, but you do remember that Vinyl’s Birthday is next week?” “Oh I completely forgot about it, I’m sorry Bonbon, I assure you I'll be there. What day was it, Tuesday?” Bonbon rolled her eyes slowly “Octavia its Thursday, not Tuesday.” Octavia tried to keep smiling as she said bye to her friend. On the way back to her house She smacked her hoof against her face yelling “STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!” Octavia knew her social life would be in ruin if she got too absorbed into the journal, she also knew that she had to finish it just to get it over with and move on in life, In the back of her mind she knew that if she didn’t , she would go insane. She knew that she had to manage her time between the journal and life, because if she didn’t, things could end badly. She thought that it might be a good idea to get Vinyl something now instead of later in case she forgot about it later. She then walked to the local store to pick out a gift. She browsed the dull items upon the gray shelves. She knew that Vinyl, like herself and a countless number of her friends, liked music. The thing was almost everyone would get her something music-related, so Octavia tried to think of something to get her that would mean more than that. They had been friends for a long time and she wanted to get something to let her remember that. She skimmed the isles looking for something but nothing seemed good enough. Octavia came to the solution that this store just didn’t have what she was looking for, so she pondered the thought of making her something, but she was horrible at those kind of things. As she walked back to her apartment she knew finding a gift for her friend was going to be tough, but will she be able to find something? Octavia settled herself into her living room couch as she was wondering what to do: read the journal, or try to find a gift for her friend. Then an idea popped into her head. A long time ago, when Octavia was little, both her and Vinyl were in music school together. They made a song together but were only given one copy of it, and vinyl wanted her to have it. She knew that this would be the perfect gift for her, now she just had to find it. As she searched through the piles of random junk around her apartment she found some stuff she was looking for earlier, but that she didn’t care about now. All she wanted was to find that song. Octavia then realized it would be a lot easier if she could remember what it was recorded on. She knew it was such a long time ago….but how long. She was searching through her older things: records,8 track, and even through the scrolls for the old player piano in her basement. And then she saw it, an old grayish white cassette sitting on one of the shelves in her bedroom. She was relieved to have finally found it, even though she might forget about it once she started to read more in the journal. “We woke up together, as we usually did, but today you said that you had something nice for us planned. I was excited even though I had no idea what you had on your mind” Octavia thought to herself Lyra you were just so silly, I wasn’t thinking that crazily that day, even though some days she didn’t know what went on inside her head herself.” “As you guided me through a section of the town I didn’t know very well you told me to close my eyes and take your hand. I had no idea what you were planning to do but I knew it would be something I would remember. When you told me to stop I had no clue where we were but I could hear a few ponies doing something around us. I really wanted to know what you were doing so I asked if I could open my eyes. After you said yes I opened them to see a camera-pony getting ready to take a shot. You told me to kiss you, I obeyed. We embraced in a kiss as the pony took the shot. When we were done I looked and saw a tear making its way down your cheek. Once I realized this I started to cry and we kissed some more…” As Octavia closed the book, she looked up with teary eyes at the photo that was hanging on her wall and said to herself. “Lyra, how could I have let it end that way… You know I would have switched places with you in a heartbeat.” As Octavia broke out into tears she asked herself, ”Why…”