//------------------------------//
// Awkwardness Reigns  
// Story: Random Acts Of Chaos 
// by Gritty Metal 
//------------------------------//

As the band gave in to their exhaustion the ponies exited the production site and continued to go over their everyday lives. Twilight, Applejack and Rarity stayed behind in the factory to meet Gritty and the others, "Oh, well, Ah can't believe that you guys haven't e'er met up for a rehearsal before today!" Applejack said surprised at the quality of the music that the band had produced only a short while earlier. She was still swinging to an inaudible rhythm as she made this remark, Rarity and Twilight standing next to her, one on either side.

Twilight, who felt like she was reborn, uttered, "Yeah, it was quite impressive, you know? You guys did a really good job." She looked at Gritty with a wide smile covering most of her face as she said, "It really was that good..." without noticing that it kind of sounded a bit sarcastic or even suggestive. Gritty couldn't help but chuckle at her wording and also Pinkie Pie laughed; so hard in fact, that she fell off her drummer chair and hit the hard concrete floor of the production plant back-first. Rolling on the floor in laughter she repeated Twilight's very odd wording and just couldn't stop.

Twilight blushed with embarrassment; never had her wording been this ambiguous before. But when she realized how awkwardly she had phrased her sentence, she couldn't help but laugh herself, joining Gritty and Pinkie Pie who had already almost laughed themselves to tears. Also Applejack and Rainbow Dash joined in with the laughter about Twi's bad wording. The remaining three, Rarity, Big Mac and Octavia, gathered around the five ponies rolling on the floor in laughter, an asking expression filling their faces. "What in Equestria was so funny that all of you are laughing so hard?" Rarity asked with her posh, slightly stuck up accent. There was no reaction to her question, besides the uninterrupted hysterical laughter of Gritty Metal, Rainbow Dash and the others who were still rolling on the floor, now actually in tears from all the laughter.

Then Gritty broke his laughter and explained the reaction, trying to not break out in laughter while elaborating his explanation, "You see, Rarity... haha, Twi's remark sounded extremely... pfff... sexual... Hahahahahahaha!" He broke down laughing again as Rarity threw him an even more asking look that could have just as well been described as a "What the buck"-Face.

Big Mac shook his head, "Well, ain't tha' a tiny bit chaldish? Ah mean, ain't we all grow up enough to not burst ou' laughin' about this?" Gritty looked at him, laughing like there was no tomorrow. That was not the reaction that Big Mac had had in mind, but he took it as a simple "No".  Big Mac rolled his eyes; he felt like he was surrounded by little children, who had nothing better to laugh at than each other's profanities. After a few minutes he asked the other two, "Hey, Rarity? Octavia? Up for a little walk with the grown ups?" He chuckled at his own statement.

The two mares nodded in the hope to leave the factory and the crazy ponies inside of it behind them. Just as they reached the door of the factory hall, the laughter faded out and the others stood up, wiping tears from their eyes and various other facial parties. Octavia looked over her shoulder as Rainbow Dash and Gritty Metal got up from the floor, "I see the fun is over? Or is it just less funny now?" Octavia frowned at the two as now also Twilight Sparkle and Applejack got up, leaving Pinkie Pie as the last laughing pony on the factory floor.

"Yeah, the funniness of the statement is gone... or at least it has been diminished," Gritty answered to Octavia. The two were eyeing each other for a while, Gritty with his trademark little smirk and Octavia with her bored, stuck up look, that after a while eased up and turned into a little smile of her own. 

They were just standing there, looking at each other util Octavia broke the silence and her stare, "You know, Gritty, this was a rather pleasurable rehearsal. Thanks for convincing me that this was a good idea; I would have never come up with an idea like this myself." Her smile widened now covering a rather big part of her face, "If you fancy the idea, you could come over at some stage and have a glass of wine with me. But only if you want to," she winked at him. 

Gritty gulped audibly. Had this just really happened? He shook his head rapidly in disbelief, "What did you just say, Octavia?" A confused look spread all over his face as he posed the question and didn't disappear, even after Octavia repeated what she had said before. He couldn't believe what he heard; even after the second time it still sounded strange to his ears, but in the end he decided to agree, "Sure, we could meet up for some wine at some point... No problem..."

Rainbow Dash, who had overheard the dialogue, couldn't believe what she heard; Octavia was thankful for something? That had to do with modern music? Her jaw dropped to the floor in amazement about what Octavia had said; the sentences resonated in her head, burnt themselves into her memory. She would always remember this day as the day Octavia opened up to the "modern age". But what was even more surprising to her was that Gritty accepted her invitation for a "glass of wine". She knew perfectly well that Gritty had some kind of feelings for her and would possibly try to make her jealous, but was he really going to try doing that with Octavia? If that was going to inspire something inside of Rainbow, it was deep disbelief. She walked up next to Gritty and looked him right in the eye, "Gritty? Are you alright?" She was concerned about him as he usually would have refused an offer like that, seeing that he wasn't a great fan of wine of any variety. "I thought you didn't like wine."

Gritty looked at Rainbow, blushing bright red. He had no idea why he hadn't resisted the offer; to be honest Rainbow was right, he wasn't a great wine pony. He was more into beer and whiskey, sometimes also cider that he would then usually share with Rainbow Dash when he got it at Sweet Apple Acres before they ran out because of Pinkie Pie. "Honestly, I have no idea what just happened, I'm just as confused as you are, Rainbow," Gritty tried to save himself. "I think that Octavia is opening up, maybe not only musically, but maybe also socially. I mean, she would usually just see me as a peasant, not worthy of even looking her in the eyes, but something changed."

Rainbow's face contradicted itself; her mouth forming a smile, her eyes and forehead displaying a sentiment both confusion and concern. She lifted one of her front hooves and playfully bucked Gritty's shoulder, "Looks like you guys have a date," she said a blush appearing on her face. She was happy for him, but somehow she did start to feel a bit envious of Octavia; she had not just gotten a date with Rainbow Dash's guitar instructor, but also the stallion that she started to develop feelings for. She looked down at her hoofs and the ground between them her face forming into a sad-ish expression.

Gritty lifted her chin with one of his front hooves and smiled tenderly, "I wouldn't call it a date, actually." He looked deep into her magenta colored eyes. "It's having a drink with a friend, if you ask me," he said with his look of mildness directed right at Rainbow Dash. He chuckled softly, "I don't consider drinking wine with Octavia a date, because I'm not really into her," he said mildly, a slight mysterious sub-tone in his voice, "I actually like an entirely different pony." He smiled at her with a little smile while blushing immensely.

Rainbow Dash gave Gritty Metal a look that radiated disbelief directly into his face. She was genuinely confused about his choice of words and his blush alike, "What exactly do you mean by that? You're "not into" Octavia? And who is that other pony you like?" She obviously didn't quite get his hint, but at least she felt a bit more comfortable, knowing that Gritty had no intentions of actually going on a date with Octavia. 

As Gritty gave her an asking look that said "Are you serious" things became more obvious and she blushed when the hint had finally reached her, "Oh... I see..." Her face turned bright red from embarrassment about her thickness in that specific moment, but she still managed to stay calm, not trying to give away her own feelings on the matter. She had learned so much from him and he had come so close to her, that she couldn't have gotten around to think of him as a great teacher and to have built up a strong bond to him; an emotional bond that she had braided from all her hopes and his own personality along with her wishes, of which he had fulfilled the biggest one that day. She looked at him sweetly, melting away by the sound of his words; "I actually like an entirely different pony." The phrase resonated inside her head like an MP3-Player that's stuck on "Replay". She closed her eyes softly and pecked him on the cheek, whilst turning even redder than before. "I like her polar opposite..."