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A New Life5,170 words
Pyjamas for Ostinato4,494 words
Close Encounters of the Mixed Media Kind6,060 words
The Flight of Tonnage3,776 words
The Chase3,781 words
Neighing in the Rain6,919 words
There's Something About Mixed Media...6,911 words
No More Secrets5,753 words
Five Minutes More3,663 words

The Chase

Stepping off of the tram, Ostin found himself looking at the University of Colton. The complex seemed to be a mixture of different building styles and periods, clearly showing in what time frames certain parts of the university had been expanded or renovated. The section that seemed to overpower the rest of the architecture though was the gigantic dome shaped building that formed the central building of the university, standing tall over the other buildings like a giant upturned cereal bowl.

The rest of the passengers from the tram rushed past him, heading straight into the building that acted as a corridor of sorts to the dome, clearly labelled ‘Chancellor’s Mall’ above the pair of antiquated oak doors the formed the entrance to the building. Looking towards the main entrance doors he spied a sign reading ‘enrolment’ framed within a large novelty arrow pinned to one of them. He began to make his way into the building, trying to fish out his documents from his saddlebag as he walked along.

Mixy was lost deep in concentration. Ever since she’d spied the young stallion with the grey coat and a yellow blonde mane she couldn’t stop thinking about him. Although she didn’t want to admit it, she was going to have to admit that she was lovestruck sooner or later, as it was starting to have a negative affect on her art course at the local university. She began to drift off into her thoughts again, imagining the stallion playing on the organ at the opera house once more in the flowing silk dressing gown he’d worn…

“Miss Media, whilst I have no doubt you have a brilliant sense of detail as an artist, I’m sorry to have to point out to you that the model posing before you and the stallion you’ve drawn are completely different!”

Mixy snapped out of her day dream to suddenly remember she was still in the middle of her life drawing class, her lecturer at the side of her admiring the rough drawing she had made on the paper set up on her easel through her thick lensed glasses. Instead of drawing the slightly chubby green earth pony that’d draped himself over a chaise longue in front of her, she’d subconsciously drawn the portrait of a young grey earth pony with scruffy yellow hair in a silk crimson dressing gown. A few of her fellow class mates sniggered, causing Mixy’s face to turn a deep shade of red with embarrassment, matching the red paint splatters on her artists smock quite nicely.

“Don’t let it happen again Miss Media” the lecturer promptly pushed her glasses up her nuzzle and moved on to examine the next students work.

Taking down the drawing from the easel, Mixy carefully folded it up and slipped it into her saddlebag, not wanting to waste a good drawing. Returning to her easel, she was now faced with the view of the model staring back at her with a rather annoyed expression. She knew immediately this lesson was going to drag on now.

Ostin was clutching his enrolment papers tightly in one of his forhooves, regretting his decision to not buy a cup of tea before he’d joined the queue. Still, he’d managed to overcome the tediously long wait and was now stood waiting at the front of the queue. A small box at the front of the queue had been calling out the numbers of the counters that were vacant in a monotone fashion to each student, emphasising the point by display the number in a digital fashion.

“Desk-num-ber-eight-please” The box chanted, showing a red digital number eight.

Ostin trotted off in the direction of desk eight, still clutching his papers.

“Hello” Ostin smiled at the administration mare behind her desk.

The blank stare he received back from behind the thick black frames of the glasses she wore said it all. She was clearly done with attempting to be happy and cheery to every individual pony that came before her desk that day “Papers please”

Ostin decided it was better just to hand his student papers over and refrain from trying to make conversation.

The mare leafed through the papers, stopping on a page in the middle and copying a few words and numbers into the file system on her computer, then putting the papers into a file in her desk draw “Stare into the camera please” She pointed at the small camera mounted on top of her computer screen.

Ostin wiped a few stray crumbs from his breakfast that morning that were still clinging to his tank top, along with ruffling the front of his mane to make it look more natural.

The administration mare still stared blankly at him through her glasses “Are you ready?” clearly she had had to try her patience most of the day with students who had been taking an eternity to make sure they looked right for their I.D. photos.

Ostin nodded.

“3…”

Suddenly, Ostin found he had a rather strong urge to sneeze.

“2…”

He was trying to stop himself from twitching at the tingly feeling in his nose. The last thing he wanted was an awkward looking photograph.

“1…” The administrator pressed down on the shutter button.
“ACHOO!!!”

Ostin sneezed so loudly that a few ponies around him turned to look straight at him. His face turning a shade of red from embarrassment, he tried to hide it behind the white collars of the shirt he was wearing.

The administration mare remained stoic throughout the whole event. She was now fixated on the rather battered and beaten printer behind her desk, which was now in the process of churning out Ostin’s photo I.D. Lifting up the flap that contained the card, she picked up the freshly stamped card with a forehoof and placed it down on the desk in front of Ostin.

Ostin was less than satisfied. All the details about him on the card were correct, but the photograph of him was less than flattering. The shutter had caught him mid sneeze. One of his eyes was half closed, his eyeballs looked as if they were rolling back into his head and his forehooves were partly in shot, having raised them both subconsciously to try and ‘catch’ the cold.

“Err, can I have another picture for my photocard please?” Ostin asked, less than pleased with how the current on had turned out.
“No retakes” The administration mare pressed the button on her desk, indicating to the queue that she was now finished with Ostin and that her desk was vacant.
Ostin picked it up with a forehoof “Yes, but this clearly isn’t…”
“No retakes, no exceptions”

Rather than waste his time arguing, Ostin got off of the chair and started to make his way out of the registration office, all the while staring at the freeze frame of him sneezing on his new I.D. card. There was only one think that could make him feel better in a situation like this. Tea, and lots of it.

Stepping off of the final step, Mixy walked out onto the ground floor of the university. She could see the long line of ponies all queuing up to have their enrolment papers checked. It was a sight she was used to, having seen it before the previous year. Nothing seemed to have changed over the course of that year in her mind. She still seemed as trapped and depressed with how her life was turning out for her, with only her art providing her with some form of escape from reality.

She hung her head low, staring down at the patterned tiles on the floor as she walked along, her Student I.D hanging from a lanyard round her neck interrupting her view as it swung from her neck.

Having seen that the queue for a cup of tea was almost, if not longer, than the enrolment queue, Ostin had quickly given up on his search for tea, deciding instead that it would probably be best just till wait till he got home. He set off in the direction of the entrance to the university, still taking in his surroundings as he walked. He found it quite amusing how modern the entrance was compared to the

All the while, he remained completely unaware that he was heading straight into the path of Mixy, who was also totally unware that she was about to encounter Ostin again as she was preoccupied with the tiled floor.

THUMP.

The two of them were thrown backwards slightly by the force of which they hit each other, landing on the polished marble floor. Ostin lost his grip on his I.D. card as he landed, whilst Mixy’s card came unclipped from the flimsy clip on the end of the lanyard hanging from her neck. A few of the ponies bustling by looked towards the two of them, but none of them stopped to check or help. This was mainly due to the fact that they all recognised Mixy as lord Spyglass’ daughter, and most of them knew his thoughts on the lower classes.

Mixy shook her head from side to side, trying to regain her composure. It came as quite a shock when, after she had regained a steady sight, that she found herself face to face with the very stallion she had been trying to track down. She admitted that he did look rather different from when she’d first seen him, most notably the fact that instead of a silk dressing gown he was now wearing a rather worn red tank top over the top of a white shirt, but his face was still as Mixy had remembered it. Her jaw dropped in disbelief.

Ostin on the other hand wasn’t paying any attention to Mixy at all. Instead he was desperately clutching at his nuzzle, praying for the love of Celestia that he hadn’t broken it when they collided whilst trying not to scream in pain. He bit his bottom lip and took a few deep breaths, trying to think of any way to relieve the pain. It was only after a few seconds that he noticed Mixy was sat before him, and although he somewhat remembered her face, he couldn’t quite seem to place where he’d seen her before.

“I’m so sorry” Ostin blurted out, almost sounding as if he was speaking through his nose.

Mixy just remained sat there, jaw still agape.

Ostin rubbed the end of his nuzzle, which was still tingling from the impact “I haven’t hurt you, have I?”
“I…bu…wha?” Was all Mixy could get past her lips.
“Hmm, you haven’t bit your tongue have you? You might want to get that seen to” Ostin picked up the I.D. card that was closest to him off of the floor, tucking it into his saddlebag.

The clock suspended from the middle of the ceiling in the great dome struck the hour.

Ostin became somewhat panicked by this “Oh, um, excuse me. I’m running rather late for the tram!” He took a few slightly awkward shuffled steps to the right before running off into the crowd towards the entrance.

Mixy remained there for a few moments, completely still and with her mouth still agape in shock. A few ponies passing by assumed she was trying to be a living statue, and tossed a couple of stray low value copper bits at the floor in front of her. She finally snapped out of her shock, shaking her head from side to side and staring into the crowd in the same way that the grey stallion had disappeared. She couldn’t be sure just how short or long it had been since he’d actually left her, but if there was ever a chance to try and properly meet him, this was it.

She quickly gathered her belongings and ran off into the crowd in the same direction as Ostin, stuffing them in her saddlebag.

Parker was sat down on the warm tarmac in the carriage park at the front of the university, leaning back against the front right wheel of the small black carriage. He’d had a tiring day pulling Lady Jewel and her high society friends around most of Colton-on-Sea on a shopping excursion, so he was indulging his spare time waiting for Mixy by rolling up the sleeves on his jacket, taking off his chauffeurs cap and catching a few brief minutes of sleep. He quickly became aware of Mixy running straight towards the carriage in rather a hurry.

“Trouble M’Lady?” Parker raised an eyebrow at her apparent hurry.

Mixy didn’t say anything; she flung open the carriage door and practically leaped inside, discarding her saddlebag on the rear seats. She opened up the hidden compartment underneath the hoof-rest of the seat where her mother usually sat to reveal a pair of diamond encrusted opera glasses, silently thanking her mother for not taking them back into the house like she normally would after a visit to the opera. Glasses in hoof, Mixy wound down the blacked out window at the front of the carriage and looked out, raising the miniature binoculars to her eyes.

Just off in the distance, Mixy could see a crowd of ponies gathered at the tram stop in front of the university, all of them trying to squeeze themselves onto the upper deck of the tramcar. Narrowing her eyes, she could just make out Ostin’s red tank top out amongst the ponies shuffling up the narrow spiral stairway.

Mixy knew she’d have to act quickly “Parker, where are you?”

Looking downwards, Parker’s face filled the lenses due to the magnification, allowing Mixy a brief look at the dark patches that were beginning to show underneath his eyes from his stressful day.

“Yes M’Lady”

Mixy took down the binoculars from her eyes to see Parker had already fastened himself into the carriages’ harness, ready to move off.

“Follow that Tram!”
Parker looked round to see the tram in question moving off “M’Lady, your father’s instructions were that I was to take you straight home. May I remind you that he is having a gala dinner tonight and has requested your attendance?”
“Parker” Mixy started to put on her puppy dog eyes “Would you do this for me, please? I’m sure we can both put together a good enough excuse to satisfy my father as to why we’d be slightly late back home”
A small smile came to Parker’s face “The ‘Blood and Custard’ tram you say, number 60?”
“That’s the one”
“Right. Hold tight M’Lady”

Parker gave a great heave on the carriage, though it certainly wasn’t enough to give Mixy any need to cling on for dear life. Slowly however, they began to gather speed as they went out onto the cobbled streets, sticking as close to the tram lines as possible in order to stand a chance of catching up to the tram.

“So” Parker wheezed slightly as he tried to accelerate even more “If you don’t mind me asking M’lady, why is this tramcar so important to you M’Lady?”
“Do you remember that stallion I told you about roughly a week and a half ago?”
“You mean the one at the opera house whom you want to get better acquainted with?”
“Yes, well, he’s on that tram. Even if I don’t meet him again today, it might give me an idea as to where I might find him, even if I will have to think up several excuses to leave the house”

Looking ahead, Mixy could see the tram had just stopped to drop off some passengers and was now starting to slowly move off again “Now’s your chance to catch up Parker! Hurry!”

Parker pressed on even harder, gaining on the tram. He was almost within reach of being able to distinguish the fine details of the individual ponies sat on the wooden seats when a grocer’s heavily laden cart pulled out from a side street and straight across their path. Parker tried to dig his forehooves into the cobbles to try and bring the carriage to a stop, sending a shower of sparks from his horseshoes in an outwards direction from his body. Unfortunately it was all in vain. With a great crash Parker hit the grocer’s cart, his head embedding itself into a slightly unripe pumpkin and his horn protruding from the other side. The harness from the carriage came loose with the impact, causing the carriage to shoot forward and trap Parker between it and the grocer’s cart.

Mixy, who had been leaning through the open front window, was catapulted forward in the crash right into the produce being transported on top of the cart, causing plums, tomatoes, oranges, lemons and limes to be squashed under the force of her body hitting them and for their juices to start sticking to her coat. The only blessing being that the fruit did offer a soft landing of sorts.

The grocer, a jet black stallion with brilliant white hair, unsaddled himself from his cart’s harness and was about to rant and rave at both of them, even if the accident was technically his fault. Though he stopped as soon as he noticed just whose carriage had ran in him and fled the scene, terrified that Lord Spyglass and his wife might have been inside the carriage.

Using all of the force he could muster after just having the wind knocked out of him, Parker eventually managed to pop the pumpkin off of his head so that he could look at Mixy “He appears to have given us the slip, M’Lady”

Mixy wrinkled her nose as she removed the remnants of a squashed banana and its skin from atop her head; once again she’d just missed out on meeting this illusive grey stallion.

Totally unaware of the events that had unfolded behind him, Ostin had left the tram at the stop at the end of the street and began trotting down the tree lined streets outside Sandy and Tonnage’s house, jumping up the steps to the house with an obvious spring in his step. He gave the front door a hard shove with his forehooves, allowing him to step into the narrow hallway and unclip his saddlebag, leaving it on the floor besides four oversized and worn out boots that clearly belonged to Tonnage. Taking a moment to stretch his limbs after what to him was a hard day’s work, he made his way out to the back of the house.

Sandy and Tonnage were out in the back garden, sat on two ornate metal garden chairs at a matching table, having afternoon tea and cake. Tonnage was very gently picking up the teapot with his forehooves and pouring two cups, clearly love struck and giving Sandy his biggest puppy dog eyes as she ruffled the strands of fur under his chin, though he immediately stopped and tried to regain his manly composure when he noticed Ostin walking out into the garden towards them.

“You’re back early Ostin” Sandy remarked, lifting her cup with her magic aura and taking a big mouthful of tea.
“So I see” Ostin smirked slightly at Tonnage, who was simply trying his hardest not to break his stoic expression.
“So, how did your enrolment go?” Sandy lifted the tiny china teacup up to her ips.

Ostin handed his new I.D. card to her, beaming with pride. Sandy picked up the card in one of her forehooves, holding it between herself and Tonnage so that he could also see it. They both exchanged a nervous glance. Tonnage was now struggling to hold back a chuckle.

“Ostin” Sandy asked “You have looked at this, haven’t you?”
Ostin sighed “Yes, I know my face is messed up, I sneezed and they wouldn’t retake it”
“No, no it’s not that” Sandy picked up the teapot in her magic aura and refilled her cup to the brim again “I just don’t remember you being a mare”
“What?!” Ostin snatched the I.D. card back from Sandy. There, staring back at him on the thin bit of plastic was the face of Mixed Media.

With an annoyed groan Ostin heavily face-planted the cast iron table in frustration, the pain causing him to instantly regretting his decision to do so afterwards.

Parker was slowly using all his might to pull the carriage with Mixed Media inside it up the hill to his Lordship’s manor on the ground. He kept reminding himself not to complain, as thanks to Mixy’s weight it was no way near as heavy and tiring as trying to pull his lordship and his wife up the hill. Mixy was still leaning out of the front window of the carriage, looking ahead.

“I’m sorry about earlier M’Lady” Parker wheased, stopping a minute to wipe the sweat from his brow “I’m not as fast as I used to be” he chuckled “And I’m certainly not as good at stopping either”
Mixy sighed “Its ok Parker. Don’t blame yourself. I’m just thankful that we could both get the carriage cleaned and that it wasn’t damaged”

Parker’s knowledge of the streets of Colton-on-Sea had proved invaluable after the crash. Having freed himself from between the carriage and the grocer’s cart, they had both gone to the one of the nearby water mains located under the pavements. Parker had then proceeded to take out a pump that was stored underneath the body of the carriage and attach it to the mains, giving him a means of hosing down some of the remains of the fruit and vegetables off of the carriage. Mixy had also taken the opportunity to clean most of the mess off of herself, washing away any hint of the incident that her parents might have been able to pick up on.

Looking ahead now, she could see her parent’s estate. To most ponies, it was a grand home that they envied, but to her it just seemed like a prison where she was held hostage by her mother and father. Turning round and sitting herself down on the plush seats inside the carriage, Mixy started to try and bring her day to an end, realising her life would practically end when she stepped through the front doors of the house. She reached into her mane and pulled out her I.D. card, deciding to get one last look at it. She was quite surprised however that instead of her face on the card, there was a young stallion with a scruffy yellow mane looking back. The very stallion she’d been trying to follow earlier that day.

Her eyes darted to the name beside the photo – Ostinato Melody.

Author's Note:

Been a while since the last chapter, hasn't it?

Progress, it's finally happening, and here were get to witness what would have been the first words said by Ostin to Mixy (That's if you don't count the scream from their last encounter! XD )

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