//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 The Next Morning // Story: Octavia x Rarity // by Ryan Hambrick //------------------------------// Chapter 6 The Next Morning The next morning, Octavia awoke as she had every morning before. The sun peeked through her window as it blurred her vision. She felt the warmth of her blankets that smelled faintly of rose petals and felt something else. Another warmth emanating from her bed next to her, a heat from a single source. She turned around, expecting to see her cello in the bed under the covers, which had also been a common occurrence. What she found was none other than Rarity, laying there with the covers wrapped around her holding them up to her eyes sound asleep. Octavia bit back the thought to scream at what she saw, as she knew that would only make things worse. She got up and went to the bathroom and looked in her mirror. What happened last night? She thought as the worst case scenarios played out in her head time and again. She couldn't remember much after the first few shots and after about four, she was done for the night. Come to think of it.... Rarity seemed pretty far gone after only a few shots, she couldn't have taken advantage of me at that rate. She thought, assuring herself that nothing terrible had happened last night. It was still unnerving to not know what had been happening last night, but she felt a bit better knowing that not too much could have gone on, and if it did, neither of them would have remembered it. She washed her face and looked at her somewhat tangled mane with disappointment. "It's going to take me all morning to fix my mane now...” she thought sadly to herself. "Where am I!?!?!?!" A scream came from the other room, making Octavia jump as she was trying to pull a tangle out. She slipped on the wet floor where a tiny puddle of water was. After she heard the scream, a groaning sound came from the same direction. She peaked through the door and looked at Rarity as she massaged her head, still half under the covers. "This is the worst headache I've ever had." she groaned to herself with her eyes closed. "I will never drink again. Please, Celestia, just relieve my pain! Put me out of my misery!" she said dramatically as she fell to the pillow still holding her head with her hooves. Octavia thought it was rather cute how she was overreacting to a little hangover. Octavia had already been aware of the pulsing headache she had from her own hangover. She went back into the bathroom and brushed her mane quickly so she could go explain what she thought happened, to Rarity. It wasn't as perfect as she liked it, but it worked for now. She walked into the bedroom and uncovered Rarity's flank. "Look who decided to wake up." She said happily and excitedly. "Have a nice night's sleep?" she asked Rarity. Rarity took her hooves from her face and opened her eyes to see Octavia. At first she looked at her confused, a few seconds passed as her brain processed the information, and then her eyes shot open as she gasped. Octavia smiled at Rarity's fear/excitement and giggled at her. "What happened last night?! I hope I didn't offend you in any way. If I did I really didn't mean to offe-" Octavia's giggling had grown so loud that Rarity stopped speaking. "What is it? Is there something wrong with my mane?" she asked Octavia. She noticed that Rarity's mane was flat and hanging down to the bed. "No, Rarity, and don't worry, I had a wonderful time last night." She winked, "At least what I remember of last night." Rarity started to understand what happened as she tried to recall the night before. It only took about three shots before she lost her memories, and everything in her mind went black. She looked at Octavia's bed. "I think after we had a few too many shots, we walked out of the bar and must have ended up here. It looks like you took a shower, and then we went to bed." Octavia explained. Rarity put a hoof to check her mane and realized that it was down as she gathered it up in her hooves. She obviously never wore it down around other ponies, which surprised Octavia, as it was a rather cute style for the white unicorn. It was easy to see her blush with her white coat and blue eyes, and could see Rarity knew this as she grew even redder with embarrassment. Neither of them said anything for some time as they just looked at each. Rarity pulled the covers over her head and hid under them from Octavia. "Oh, Rarity, you don't need to hide from me." Octavia smiled as she put a hoof on the bed. "Yes I do!" She screamed into the pillow, "I'm so ugly!" Octavia could see Rarity rolling around under the covers with the pillow pressed against her face. Rarity seemed to get even cuter by the minute now. "Rarity, you look fine, in fact, I really like your mane down. It's not quite as beautiful as your normal mane style, but it really does work for you." Octavia could see that her words had reached Rarity as she lay on her back letting the pillow lay softly on her head without force. "You really mean it?" Rarity asked, now hugging the pillow still hiding under the covers. "Yes, I really do mean it." Octavia smiled as she pulled the covers down so she could see Rarity's face again. What happened next shocked both of them. Rarity jolted up, kissing Octavia with her eyes closed. Their kiss lasted what seemed like hours to Rarity, and after the initial shock, Octavia embraced the kiss and closed her eyes as well. Some time had passed since Rarity had started, but after she began to think clearly her eyes opened. Slowly at first, and then when she started to comprehend what she had done, they shot open as she pulled away and scrambled out of the bed. Octavia fell over as her weight was no longer being supported by Rarity. "I'm so sorry, I- I- I. I'm sorry!" Rarity ran out the door. "No wait Rarity! I don't mind if you want to stay-...." Octavia was left alone on her bed. She determined that Rarity would probably return to Ponyville yet again. She didn't quite understand her own feelings on what had just happened. She felt somewhat relieved, as if a huge weight had been lifted from her flank, but now she had strange feelings. They were feelings she had never had for any colt or mare before, and feelings she thought she would never feel. She decided that there was no use in sitting up looking at the door hoping that Rarity would come back at this point, so she gathered up the pillow Rarity had been yelling into and held it against her chest as she lay on her back. She kept staring at the white ceiling, unable to think of anything but the white unicorns body. Octavia let out a big sigh as she pulled the pillow over her face to block the sunlight and hope that she would stop thinking about it for now. This attempt ended in failure and only seemed to make things worse as all she could smell was Rarity's scent and see the whiteness of the pillow. She groaned, knowing that no matter what she tried she would keep thinking about it. She didn't quite know what she should do, as she had never experienced something like this. She contemplated running after Rarity, but that may just scare her away even more. It was a tricky business, trying to get back with Rarity, but she knew if she put her mind to it, she could pull it off. "That's what I'll do!" Octavia exclaimed as she sat up quickly in the bed, letting the pillow fall from her face. She jumped out of bed and ran over to a stack of staff paper that was laying on a desk in the corner with lots of pencils lying around. To unicorns and pegasi, the capability of and Earth pony to pick up a pencil was nothing short of a miracle, but to Octavia it was as natural as playing the cello. She got out her cello after thinking up something to write on the top of the page, and began to pick out notes. She played a few scales, questioning which one would get a point across like this, and found the key signature. G flat Major, one of the more difficult keys to play in on the cello, but it was the one for the job. She wrote the key signature down on the paper and decided on a 3/4 time signature, a Waltz. Octavia had always loved dancing, especially ballroom dancing that she had played for at the royal palace, but lacked the physical ability to even two step. She knew more about the idea of Waltzing that those that were actually in the ballroom. How each step went on each beat of each measure, how the spin took place on exactly the second and a half beat of each measure, unless the tempo exceeded one hundred and twenty notes a minute, in which case the quarter turn would take place on the first and a half beat. She shook her head to clear her mind. She had gotten so wrapped up in thinking of ponies dancing that she had forgotten what she was supposed to be doing. As was written by many professors of music before her, the first note was inevitably a G flat, as would be the last note of the piece. She looked at the paper, and chose the lowest G flat she could, on the C string. It embodied the tone of the heavens, and she could picture that the note was the same note that played when Princess Celestia lifted the sun into the world for everypony to see. She smiled as she played the note, closing her eyes and remembering the kiss she had shared with Rarity. Music began to flow out of her cello, quickly, as if the song had written itself, been memorized, and was ready to perform for an entire ballroom. When she concluded the song, she took her pencil and put it against the paper. She stared at it for a second, hoping that the pencil would move much like her bow and just show her what notes she had played. Sadly, the pencil refused her offer and sat there unmoving. She began to think back at what she had just played, or at least what it had sounded like so she could reconstruct it. Octavia sighed at the outcome. She had forgotten everything she had just played, except what she had planned out before hoof. She slammed her head against the desk as she thought of how stupid she was to think that she would memorize and write down a song if she had just played it. She looked back at her cello. "What do we do now then?" she asked it, as she thought of the answer. "Yes, I suppose that is the only real way to do this, after all, starting again wouldn't be quite the same as what I just played." She looked at the cello happily. "You always have the best advice." At this point, other than Rarity, Octavia had never made friends, even when she was just a little filly, and the only companion she had ever known was her cello, until now. "I'll just have to rewrite the song again, until I get it right I'll stay here and keep working on it." she promised herself. "So next time I see Rarity, I can explain to her how I feel." Speaking for musicians was a tricky business, especially for string players. It was hard to get words out to show emotions, to prove a point. It was easy for them to make a song and play it to show how they felt, what they felt, and could even be directed at one pony in particular. Octavia smiled as she remembered the first two measures, playing them and writing them down. "That's a start." she said, smiling as she looked at the two measures.