Chapter 3
Octavia was standing in a gorgeous flower garden immersed in pleasant, nightly darkness. All around her she could see flowers of cold colours perfectly arranged to create abstract patterns. What she couldn't see, however, was an exit. The garden was indeed surrounded by hedges from everywhere she could see. There probably was a way out if she turned around, but she was too absorbed in the beauty of the view to care.
The dumbfounded cellist tilted her head upwards. The night sky looked even more dazzling than normal, much more vivid, its colour pattern practically identical to the flowers'. The serene atmosphere relaxed and amazed the musician to her core.
There was only something she needed to have the perfect setting, that elusive element she would find by simply turning around. And so she did, finding the alicorn of her dreams – quite literally in fact, as the grey mare was in the middle of one. The blue goddess stood only a few steps away from her, smiling with such charm that it left the cellist breathless.
Next thing she knew, her eyes were closed, her nose full of a wonderful smell, and her lips locked onto the princess's. She didn't understand what she was doing, but she didn't need to. It felt too good to stop. Besides, this was a dream, there were no consequences.
A few everlasting moments later, she pulled away. The look on her alicorn's expression transitioned from bliss to utter surprise. Why was she surprised? She was made up by Octavia's imagination, she was part of her dream, she wasn't supposed to act on her own. Well maybe she could, if her imagination decided that. Dreams are weird altogether. She would have to ask the real Luna about it. The goddess was in charge of dreams, after all. The thought stuck around for an instant, fracturing the sense of security the dreamer had managed to build up. The alicorn could also enter other ponies' dreams. And the pair had agreed on Luna visiting her dream. This was bad. This was very bad. She had just kissed. The actual. Princess. of Equestria.
Her panic attack caused her to wake in a shock. It was all just a dream. Obviously. However she wouldn't get away with this just because it was a dream. She needed to flee. Far away, somewhere she couldn't be sent to jail. The exile started getting on her hooves, but was quickly stopped by a voice behind her. Of course the Princess had been awake now. So much for her only chance at “freedom”.
“Octavia?” said her judge in a worried hush.
“I'm so sorry princess! I didn't mean to!”
“What are you apologising for?”
She didn't know. The criminal was saved, she just needed to find an excuse now.
“Erm... For waking you, of course. What else should I be apologising for?” She declared nervously, but not enough for the lie to become obvious.
But not enough either to convince the alicorn, whose facial expression turned into great confusion.
“What in Equestria are you talking about?” After a short-lived while of oh so awkward silence, the blue mare seemed to understand. “I was just looking for an appropriate way of telling you your feelings are okay to have.” Another pause.
“I understand why you're scared, believe me, ponies always think we will take offence in their feelings, but why would we? That's actually quite a compliment. Well, besides those occasional nobles who try to ask our hooves for marriage, those are more annoying than anything.”
“Some insightful ponies even think that neither of us alicorns likes to bond with mortals, too afraid of getting hurt by their loss. This however, simply isn't true, time doesn't pass quicker for us than for normal ponies. A normal lifetime is more than enough time to spend with somepony, especially for short-lived romances. Never talking to anypony out of fear of getting hurt is equally stupid for everypony, not just mortals.”
“I would love to say that I got used to it, and that the deaths of ponies close to me don't bother me anymore, but I would be lying. Over the centuries I realised that knowing them was by far worth the pain of losing them.”
The cellist stood there a few more moments, dumbfounded. “So you mean you're alright with my feelings towards you? And wait a second, this seems like a well prepared speech. Does that mean you knew?”
“I suspected it, yes, but it was nothing more than a hunch. So I thought this through, in case my gut was right. To answer your question, I'm more than alright with them, Tavi. I can call you that, right? It's the first time I make up a nickname for somepony other than Celly, and I don't want it to be annoying.”
“Oh yes, it's perfect, and although the one I'm used to – Tavia – is slightly classier, I kind of like it more. Even though it's only one letter. I can't explain it.”
“So, Tavi, would you be free next Saturday night? I thought of going somewhere I'm familiar with, and introducing you another part of my night, the so-called nightlife. DJ Pown-three will be performing at the club I wanna go to. Or we could just go to a normal restaurant, slightly more boring, but also less hectic, and we would get to know each other better.”
Under normal circumstances, Octavia would have preferred the fancy restaurant in lieu of the crowded club. Those, however, weren't normal circumstances.
“I'd love to try it. The club, that is. And we don't have to wait till Saturday, the ensemble and I decided to take a two week vacation, we could go out sometime before that.”
“I'm not on a vacation. I have royal duties to tend to, sorry.” The blue mare admitted sheepishly.
“Oh yes, that...” Great way to be an idiot, Octavia.
“I could make room in my schedule, but I'd have to move some stuff over to Thursday, and then I'd end up with a stuffed to the core day. Not a single minute to breathe.” She frowned, and so did Octavia.
“Speaking of schedule, I have paperwork to get back to.” The Princess's ears dropped and her face turned to annoyance. “I'd love to have you around, but I have a lot of it and I don't need distractions, so I can't invite you to stay with me. Goodnight Tavi.” Blushing at the sound of her newly acquired nickname, the cellist said her own goodbyes, and turned to leave. Closing the door behind her she heard a faint “I hate paperwork...”
Far from her previous levels of fatigue, Octavia had woken up only a few hours in the afternoon. She had showered and left the castle with a slight skip in her step – which would have gone unnoticed had she not met her best friend. The sousaphone player had been walking around the city visiting relatives and friends. She did that whenever she had a satisfying amount of free time, in order to “force herself to keep in touch”. The cerulean musician was definitely interested in social interactions and relationships than the grey one.
“So, how was your date?”
“Still not a date.”
“Then why do you have that skip in your step that makes you seem happier than p Cadence on her wedding? Seriously Octy, last time I saw you this happy was when you were accepted at the conservatory all those years ago.”
“I told you not to call me that. And the reason I appear so 'happy' is probably the fact that I did get asked out on a date.” the annoyed cellist blurted out, becoming aware of her mistake seconds later.
Beauty's eyes bulged in surprise. “Wait you actually have a date with Luna?” the surprised mare spat. “I knew you had feelings for her (I mean come on, it's beyond obvious), but I didn't know she had too. I guess that would make even you cheerful, being asked out by your crush.”
“Well, not exactly. You know, she's a princess, and I couldn't say no. My brain was making up a weird dream and she got inside and that's totally why she thought I had feelings for her. And I couldn't tell her otherwise, because then she'd be embarrassed and I couldn't let that happen, could I?”
The sousaphone player looked confused for a second, then, when she realised Octavia was just making up excuses – which she wasn't, she was just telling the truth – she mocked: “Oh, poor Octypuss.”
“Do not use that.” growled the cellist at the use of her other nickname.
“Well it is your fault you're not mare enough to accept your feelings.”
“She's a princess, everypony has some kind of feelings for them.”
“But not everypony goes out on a date with a princess.”
“Oh whatever, let's switch subjects, I don't wanna get into an argument you can't win but that you won't let go.”
“I don't need to win, you already know it. But you're right, it's your denial, and I'm too tired emotionally to try and help you out against your own will. So anyway, have anything planned for today?”
“To be honest, no, but I feel musically inspired and I wanna spend the day composing stuff and practising.”
“Oh yeah, forgot that miss genius can't stand having free time and has to work on music all the time. Even during her holidays.” Beauty teased, then winked. “Seriously though, while you are the reason our ensemble is so popular, you really should rest more.”
“Hey! It's not my fault I actually like what I do. Besides, I feel so inspired right now, and I just want to play. I already have a full song I just need to write down.”
“Ooooh I see, inspired by your little princess, aren't you?” the cyan mare made a knowing face (well, one that thought it knew) and smiled at Octavia.
“Shut up about it, okay?” she said, her cheeks growing uncomfortably warm, which was perfectly natural. Anypony accused of such a thing would blush. “I really don't wanna start arguing again.”
“Relax, I'm just teasing you. Anyway, we're approaching my building, mind if I join your musical session? Otherwise I'll just go back home, I'm done walking through Canterlot for this weekend.”
“I don't mind, no, but I thought you wanted to take a break from music, what about that?”
“Eh, to be honest, a bit of casual playing can't hurt. Although I'm not gonna pick up my own instrument, too tiring to play, plus it doesn't really fit into the definition of 'casual'.”
“Let's get going then, shall we?”
Wednesday night was cold and slightly rainy, a certain cellist was walking down the road that led from the train station to her home, a wistful look plastered on her face. She had visited the Ponyville music store, where she could find the best strings on the market, and she could spend some time with the owner, whom she was friends with, making it well worth the fourty minute trip in each direction. The sun had long set when she entered the train to Canterlot. She had indeed taken on a rather nocturnal sleep schedule, falling asleep by three or four, and waking up around noon. That “morning” however, had been a bit different.
Octavia had woken up from a dream about her princess. She had spent most of it with the princess, kissing and cuddling, making her feel warm and fuzzy inside. If this was love she could definitely get used to it. If this was how she felt after hardly a week of knowing the goddess, she could definitely see herself forever by the alicorn's side. All of this daydreaming had led her to stay in bed for much, much longer than needed, nearly making her miss her appointment with the doctor.
When she realised it was a dream, however, she also became aware it hadn't been the real Luna this time. That in turn made her realise how much she missed the lunar mare.
The cellist hadn't found some time in her day to think about the meaning of her dreams and feelings. Even in the train to pony she had been busy planning her schedule for the weeks to come, obviously trying to plan according to her newly acquired sleeping habits.
On the trip back, however, the thoughts from the early hours of her day came back, and she was forced to rethink her love. She did have strong feelings for the princess, didn't she?
Actually, all of this could be explained by the fact that anypony would crave some kind of royal acceptance, and the love of a goddess, she was no special for liking-
No, she needed to stop lying to herself, she definitely had some romantic feelings towards Luna, after all, she never felt this way before, and she had frequented many many ponies, and most of them longer than the nightly princess.
However, if her feelings were real, it meant she was a fillyfooler, and if that was the case, why hadn't she ever developed that crush on some other mare? Octavia had pondered that for a long time, understanding after a while that she had, she had just always dismissed it, constantly finding a new excuse for her feelings, and ending up not thinking about it at all.
The sexually confused mare turned right. At least she could still walk on autopilot, even with hundreds of identity crisis inducing thoughts running through her head. She wasn't normal anymore. She didn't fit into high society anymore. She wouldn't be loved by her parents anymore.
She would have to hide it, repress it, ignore it, until the end of her life. She turned left, entering her building, calling the elevator. She couldn't see the princess anymore, for her career, for her friends, for her integrity. She left the lift and turned right, her legs still working on their own. First she needed to go on that date, though. She unlocked the door to her apartment and pushed the door open. She couldn't just ditch a princess like that. She didn't want to abandon Luna, it would have just made both of them extremely miserable. She turned the lights on and headed towards her bathroom, grabbing her toothbrush, starting her mouth hygiene ritual.
Yeah, they would end their almost-relationship on friendly terms. No need to get love involved. If the popular cellist didn't like stallions, there was no place for such an emotion in her life. She couldn't let love into her heart. She flipped the light switch once more and lay down on her queen size bed. But she deserved love, didn't she? She thought, the first tear of many rolling down her cheek.
That night, Canterlot's prime cellist cried herself to sleep.
Octavia was on the way to Canterlot castle. She had been able to calm herself down and think about her options. The most reasonable course of action was to at least try a relationship with the blue mare. She just wanted to know whether or not it was worth it to give up her career for this “love” she wanted so hard to experience.
The potential couple had agreed to meet before the castle's gate after sunset, but when Octavia arrived the only ponies present were the two guards closing it. A few minutes passed before she spotted a blue unicorn on the other side of the fence. The cellist hadn't dressed up in any special manner, and seeing her date as bare as herself made her satisfied with her own choice of clothing. Or rather, of non-clothing.
An audible “pop” later, the mare in question was by her side, grinning widely. “Good evening, Tavi.” she started, her smile turning slightly sheepish. “Sorry for the wait, I'm not the punctual type of pony. Never really was, though it's only gotten worse since my exile. A thousand years alone on the moon makes your inner clock go numb.”
“Good evening to you, Luna. Shall we get going?” she replied with a warm smile of her own.
The princess just nodded and started trotting off in a seemingly random direction. Octavia followed her in a pleasant silence. The atmosphere in Canterlot was cool and refreshing, even at this time of the year, because of the city's alpine elevation. This didn't last long, however, as the unicorn interrupted it. “Before we get there I'd like to tell you something. The name I'm known as is Sky Sight, so if you're talking to someone, use this name. Even use it when talking to me in public, I don't want rumours or anything to start running. Now onto less awkward matters, how was your week?”
Octavia was tempted to admit her moment of weakness midweek, but decided instead to 'forget' that event, instead opting for a more cheerful approach. Nopony needed to know she was weak. “Apart from my visit at the doctor's it was relaxing. Just needed to get my yearly general check-up. I got to visit some ponies I hadn't seen in quite a while, and simply just relax. I even went to the spa two days ago. Had some emotional stress to loosen up.” Damn it, why did she push the conversation into that direction? Hopefully Luna wouldn't dwell on it.
“Really? What happened?” Fuck.
“Oh, nothing worth talking about.” was the cellist's reply, followed by a nervous laugh. Regaining her composure she resumed “Now, where is that club located? Are we getting close to it?”
“Uh-huh, it's just around the corner.”
Silence reigned once again for a few moments, before they found themselves in a street full of lights. Thumping bass – not the kind Octavia was familiar with, though – could be heard from almost every building. The only exception to that were bars, littered somewhat regularly throughout the district.
“You see, the noise and general agitation a single nightclub brings to its surroundings is immense. So it was decided long ago that they would only be built in certain designated areas, where they wouldn't bother residents. Especially in a city like Canterlot.” she pointed to a building not much different from the others. “This is where I'm planning for us to go. We'll first head to the private parts of the club. They have a mini-bar and we could just sit around there and wait until the nightlife really starts. It won't be long.”
“Wait a second, private bar? If it's private why are we allowed in?” the cellist asked in utter confusion.
“Isn't it obvious? Well I suppose not... I'm a friend of theirs. Ever since my first nightmare night after returning, I decided to socialise more, as you know, and this is the club I've started with. At first I didn't know what to do, and was completely lost, but the DJ who had been playing there bought me a drink and started chatting with me once she was done with her gig. Her name's Vinyl Scratch, or 'DJ Pown-Three'. A while later she introduced me to her friends and colleagues and that's how we all became friends. Soon after I was given a VIP pass so that I could come and hang out with them while they were on breaks, and so that I could invite someone to a really good night out.” after a thoughtful break she added: “They do have a weird way of doing business, yet they're far from bankruptcy according to what I've been told.”
They approached an entrance blocked by a gate and a very large white pegasus, with very small wings, causing the grey mare to wonder if he could even fly. “Hey Snowflake, how's the family?” the blue unicorn addressed the bumper, whom Octavia was honestly quite scared of. Shortly after, the dark blue unicorn pulled out a card from her mane and showed it to him.
“Good evening, Sky.” the behemoth half shouted at his interlocutor, opening the gate behind him. “Family's doing just fine, especially the little one, his condition has improved so much during the last month.” He pointed towards Octavia. “She with you?”
“I'm glad to hear that, and yeah, Tavi is my date.” Octavia knew she had started blushing. Her cheeks were blazing hot, almost enough to light her coat on fire. This, however, did nothing to stop her from following her 'date' inside the building.
“He used to live in Ponyville, but was forced to move to Canterlot when his son was diagnosed with wing cancer. He's been working here ever since.” Luna explained, while they walked down a rather narrow hallway. Oddly enough, the deeper they advanced into the building, the quieter it became, the only sound coming from behind them. Her curiosity getting the better of her, the cellist asked: “Is this soundproofed? When I was outside I could clearly hear the music coming from inside, but now that we are inside, it's almost inaudible.”
“It is, as most staff members come here to take a break, or simply relax with their friends. The more you know about it, the weirder this club becomes... I mean, not many workplaces offer a place for their employees to just hang out.” A few more steps and a door later, the maybe couple emerged into a moderately big room with counter, two couches, an armchair, and a white unicorn sitting in it.
“Hey Vinyl.”
“Yo Sky!”
The midnight blue unicorn turned towards Octavia, then to Vinyl again. “Make yourselves acquainted, I'll be right back. Need to use the restroom for a sec.” she said, heading towards a door on the other side of the room.
“Heyo! What's your name?”
“Erm, hello. My name's Octavia, and yours is Vinyl, if I haven't misheard.”
“Yupedy dup! So, dating the princess, huh, Octy?”
“This is actually our very first date, and I'm not sure if I'm comfortable calling it a 'date' yet. Oh and please, if you could avoid that nickname it'd be great.” Her thoughts had started drifting back towards their state midweek when a realisation hit. “Wait what? What princess? There is no princess here. My date is totally just Sky Sight.” She blurted out, trying to hide her screw up.
“Relax Octy, we're all aware Sky Sight is just a disguise for Luna. We taught her how to speak modern Equestrian, after al, and I'm positive that she's the only pony in the whole world who would need to learn that.”
“Oh, she doesn't seem know, she did warn me to call her Sky in presence of ponies she knew.”
“Well she doesn't. We've never really told her. From time to time we even call her Luna accidentally, and she doesn't even notice when we do. That's pretty much how we confirmed that Sky Sight equals Princess Luna from the Equestrian diarchy. Plus, I saw you two dancing at the wedding, and now you're on a date.” The wedding? Oh yeah, that wedding – not that she had attended many wedding lately. The jockey had performed there.
“Oh yeah... You were at the wedding... To be honest I was there only to find out who I'd been replaced with. Needless to say, I got distracted and didn't even pay that much attention to your music.”
“So wait. You were scheduled to play originally instead of me? Or did I get something wrong?”
“Well yes, but then Bug Queen showed her ugly face, and it turned out she had done all the preparations. Then the real Cadence changed plans, informing us quite late, although we still got paid, so it wasn't nearly as bad for us as it could have.”
“To me it was as sudden too. Some dude came to my house super early and woke me and told there was a wedding I was invited to play at in like, three hours hours. I suspect Luna had something to do with it, but I'm not sure.”
“Normally I would have been surprised at your sleep schedule, but I've been following a similar one for the last week. Partly because I've always loved the night, and partly because I got thrown into it by a very specific pony.” The cellist said, unaware of any second meanings to her sentence until she heard her white companion snicker. Feeling the increasingly familiar warmth on her cheeks, the flustered mare added: “N-not like that!” That, however, did nothing to stop the overly amused unicorn. In fact, her guffaw doubled in intensity shortly after.
Octavia trying to explain herself and Vinyl laughing her flank off lasted a few more moments, before the DJ managed to contain herself, and went off for her show.
Just then, another unicorn, this one dark blue, entered the room. “Vinyl's gone already? Guess that leaves some time for us, or do you want to get to the actual club now already?”
“Uh yeah, why not, I'm curious. Vinyl said something about last minute preparations and changes she needed to do, and it seemed interesting enough...”
“Okay then, let's go.”
The public part was, to Octavia's ears' misery, louder. A lot louder.
The entire room was dark, lit only by a few coloured lamps and other lighting effects. The brightest part contained the bar and its tender, and of course the exit, which still had normal lighting.
“Luna?” the confused cellist started, yelling over the music, slightly embarrassed by the question she was about to ask. “What do I do? I see ponies dancing, and I have no idea how to dance to this sort of music. It's just not like anything I usually listen to. And I thought the wedding's music was 'new age'...”
“Relax, it doesn't matter, just watch some ponies. Those who seem to be flowing with the music are the ones doing it right. Heck, even I'm experienced enough as a dancer for you to learn from. Besides, in the middle of this crowd, no one is going to care about your dancing. No one is going to judge you, and if somepony is, they're an asshole and their opinion doesn't matter.” Eliciting a slight inaudible chuckle from her date. “But first, let's get something to drink. I'm pretty thirsty, and a little alcohol should help you loosen up a bit.” She paused. “Although let's not get too drunk, we don't need alcohol to have fun, right?” the lunar princess grimly added. Quickly cheering up again, she asked the barcolt for two glasses of a drink whose name the cellist didn't catch.
“Well, I'm going to dance now, Tavi. I'd love you to join me, but I can't force you, especially since this is your first time on the dancefloor. When you feel like it though, don't hesitate.” said Luna in a chirp. Somehow managing to keep a natural sounding voice albeit the roaring music. After being stuck a few seconds on the “love you” part, Octavia snapped back to reality, shouting over the noise “Oh yeah I'll sit here and watch you!”
As she watched her date become the princess of the dancefloor (the dark mare was amazing at this, despite her modesty), she realised how glad she was nopony had picked up on her little freeze moments earlier. As the princess flowed swiftly with the melody (said music, despite being very fast and somewhat chaotic, and unlike what she had predicted outside, had indeed a very pronounced melody), the cellist eyed her every movement in awe, following her curves down to... No not there, she wouldn't learn much about dancing by watching that part.
With a decided jump off her stool she stepped back onto the floor. She wasn't there for the music – although she didn't dislike it. She wasn't there to watch ponies dance – although she could watch Luna for hours. She was there to spend time with the pony who made her heart flutter, and she was going to enjoy it.
“Joining me already?”
“Well, I'm trying out new things, so might as well stop trying restraining myself.” admitted the newbie with a smile. She was on a date. In a nightclub. With a mare. And she was dancing to new age music. That was one long chain of new experiences.
As the song approached an end, multicoloured lights slowly illuminated the stage, where a certain white unicorn was standing. Above her head could be read the words “DJ Pon3”, which Octavia quickly realised to be the “Pown-three” Luna had mentioned a few times. Before any other thoughts could cross the grey mare's mind though, the DJ exclaimed: “Heeeeeeeeeeeelloooo ponies! Are you ready to rave? Of course you are so let's get started!”
She put on a record and killed the silence before it settled in, filling the room once again with club music. The cellist turned back towards her own raver, resuming their dance.
Octavia lost track of time. She was just having too much fun, and coupled with the fact her date was stealing her full attention, she just forgot about everything. They had been alternating between dancing and sitting at the bar relaxing their legs since the beginning of the show. When they had been resting, her lovely companion would complimented the musician's dancing quite fondly, especially the progress she made.
The music had had time to change, progressively becoming more aggressive, with sharper tones and faster tempo. It was, as Luna had called it, “Happy Hardcore”, and while the cellist still enjoyed it, it was much harder and exhausting to dance to.
Her date, however, didn't seem to mind. She had probably only ever paused her own dancing out of worry for the cellist. Alicorns did have all attributes of the three pony races, insanely amplified. Extreme earth pony stamina was just one of those traits which made alicorns so “over powered” (according to a magazine Beauty had made her read).
Next moment, Luna shone her a grin, causing the grey mare to snap out of her thoughts. The princess of the dancefloor nodded towards Vinyl's stage, where the lights now read “The night belongs to lovers!”. Just then, the alabaster unicorn spoke up, voice over the music. “This next song is for two of my friends who are having a wonderful date tonight.”
Wasn't she in the middle of a song already? Why announce the next track when the current one wasn't even finished? Although, apparently, it had finished, as a different voice was singing now. The transitions she had managed to do were smooth, but there always was a point where both songs were playing at once, overlapping each other in a good wa-
The confused musician didn't get to finish that thought, as a midnight blue hoof grabbed her. “Come on! We gotta dance to this one, it's for us after all!” She was positively beaming, and soon so was Octavia. The song was about lovers and the night, of course it was for them!
The pair danced, entranced by each other and the music. They were moving in perfect harmony, yet not mirroring one another at all. The track came close to an end, so did their dance.
The crowd roared and stomped. How long had they been watching them?
“Oh I see you've found them, aren't they just adorable? Well anyway, I'm done here for the night! Neon will be playing here the rest of tonight! Pon3 out!” shouted the insane mare before putting on another song and getting off stage.
“Tavi, let's go back to the private area, congratulate Vinyl on her performance and then go outside.”
After a short walk through the crowd and a few hallways, they found themselves back in the quiet, calm room. The DJ was splayed out on a couch, talking to another staff member.
“Yeah thanks, although I did kinda cheat. Both songs I used had a very similar lead melody in the instrumental chorus, so I just tuned the sound a bit and bam, the perfectest transition in the history of perfect! Like, I literally just played one song in the middle of the other, and it felt like the song had not changed at all! I had this planned out for quite some time already, to be honest, but Lulu and Octy coming on their date tonight was just the best possible occasion to test it out. Especially after she told me she loved the night as much as the princess. Speaki-” the cellist didn't hear the end of that sentence when she was forcibly dragged out of the break room. “You told her? How could you? You didn't even know her until now! Now that they all know I'm a princess I won't be able to talk normally to them anymore, they'll just be super awkward and trying to act all 'royal subjects'! It'll be a miracle if I get them to stop bowing after several months! Oh, what do I do? What do I do?”
“Luna, calm down-”
“And I can't really blame it on you either, I mean, who wouldn't boast about dating a princess?”
Octavia, then, possibly under the slight influence of alcohol, panic-induced adrenaline, or both, did yet another new thing. She stepped closer to the stellar unicorn (she had noticed her cutie mark in this form was a representation of Ursa Minor) and pressed her lips up against her lover's, instantly silencing her.
The moment lasted forever. Or it could have, the cellist wouldn't have cared if the world stopped while she was locked in a kiss with her goddess. However, as Luna started pulling away from the embrace, Octavia quickly reacted, and cut her off before she even opened her muzzle. “It'll be fine. I haven't told Vinyl, she already knew. In fact, everypony here knows, they've witnessed your first moments in this form, when it was quite obvious who you actually were.”
“Yeah,” Vinyl suddenly interrupted “We've heard you talk in your ancient Equestrian, and on top of that you actually used the Royal Canterlot Voice once or twice. We've been calling you Luna for a long time already, and you just somehow didn't notice until I actually used the word 'princess'. We weren't sure whether to talk to you about it.” the white mare stopped for a moment, before adding: “Also, that was hella cute.”
Luna rubbed the back of her left foreleg with the other, a blushing creeping over her cheeks. Why did she have to be so adorable? Then she finally spoke up:
“We both loved your show tonight, Scratch, it was amazing. That last transition was just wow, and thanks a ton for dedicating a song to us, it means a lot.”
“Now, we were planning to get out for a walk, maybe go into a bar or two, so we'll leave now. Bye V.”
“Yeah, bye Lulu. Actually, can I follow you two into a bar? Us three haven't really had the chance to talk, and I don't feel like staying here. It's nice and all, but I can't always hang out here. Ponies would think I'm some sort of diva, always avoiding the public, and only drinking at her own private bar. I ain't like that.”
“I see no reason against it. Do you, Tavi?”
“Apart from the fact that she's slightly insane, no. And I'm used to dealing with insane ponies. My best friend is one.”
“Well then, let's go.”
The time with Vinyl had been a very wild one, unsurprisingly. They had drunk, talked, and laughed, only coming to an end when the DJ told them she needed to go sleep “very early” (four AM) because she was meeting somepony the day after.
Of course, neither the princess nor the cellist tried to stop her (both had admitted having had very negative experiences with sleep deprivement).
After that, they resumed walking through Canterlot, quite a lot more inebriated than in the club, but still far from actually drunk. At least she didn't feel like it. Her sense of balance was still normal, so she wasn't flat out drunk. No, she was almost sober!
“Erm, Octavia? I think we should split up now, it's getting quite late, and I have to take court tomorrow for Celly.”
“Well we are pretty close to my place, it's only a few blocks from here, so you could just join me.” As she spotted the bright blush on Luna's face, the grey mare immediately realised her mistake. Okay, maybe she was little drunk. “I have a guest room! That's what I meant!” Good, catastrophe aborted.
“Aww, what a shame, I actually wanted to join you.” winked the blue mare, instantly regretting her tongue, as she pressed both her forehooves into her muzzle. Octavia would have been massively more embarrassed, had the scene before her not been so hilarious. The astral mare had lost balance and crashed face first into the ground. As hard as the cellist tried, she still couldn't hold in a giggle.
Quickly regaining her calm, the amused earth pony helped her hurt companion up. Then, memories hit her, and her mood darkened.
“Actually, Luna, there's something I need to tell you.” She paused, gathering her thoughts. “I'm not sure about this relationship. I do like you, and I feel very weird inside when, a good weird. I believe it's what other ponies have been referring to as 'love', and I would love nothing more than being with you. But I'm not sure I want to throw my life away for it... I mean, nopony would hire a gay musician, at least not in high society. Not to mention my parents, I don't want them to be disappointed.”
“With every second I spend with you I start believing that it might be worth it, to taste love at least once in my life. It was always such a strange concept, never once in my life did I think 'I think I like him', and I thought it was because the right one just hadn't come yet. In fact, I have experienced a lot of crushes on other mares, I just avoided them, pretending my feelings towards them were those of jealousy. Thanks to you I've come to realise it, you're really an amazing pony, and I've never felt this strongly towards anyone.”
“To be honest, my brain tells me to just drop it, and be content with what I have, but my heart needs love. No, it doesn't need love, it needs you right now.” By the time Octavia had finished pouring her soul out, she was staring at her hooves, ashamed of her being. A hoof found its place under her chin, lifting it and causing her to look into magnificent teal eyes. Soon, blue lips met grey, as they kissed deeply for the second time of the night.
“Oh Octavia, you don't need to worry about society. When word will spread of a princess being a lesbian, trust me, those stupid nobles won't consider homosexuality 'sin', but 'in'. To be honest, when I came back I was really surprised at the way love had evolved.”
“Back in my time ponies had this really stupid mentality that true love could only exist between two mares, and that stallions were to be used only for reproductive purposes. Whatever sister or I said, it was mostly just shrugged off as 'politically correct bullshit'.” a deep sigh escaped her before she resumed. “I think it's because of our parents' generation, and alicorn culture in general.” She chuckled lightly before explaining. “The other day in the street I overheard a stallion complaining how 'gay' alicorns are because of our exaggerated powers, if only he knew how right he was.” By this point the astral unicorn was almost in tears from laughter. After a few minutes she managed to fairly regain her composure, and spoke up again. “But seriously, what nopony besides Discord knows is that Celly and I have been raised by two mares.”
“Anyway, as I was saying before I strayed off the subject (well not really, but whatever), high society will adapt its standards because of us. Especially if I tell them I'm exclusively lesbian. As much as nobles seem to try to do anything to make our lives difficult, we are still role models to society.”
“Also, I'm pretty sure society will freak the fuck out for a short while. The way I understand it, most ponies think we're not even attracted to mortals. Oddly enough, this is true for Celestia, as I'm convinced she's asexual. She never once mentioned love, let alone had a crush or a relationship. Even when I directly asked her if she had made any progress with that while I was exiled her answer was negative.”
“But, to be honest, it really hurts, everypony seems to alienate us. We're treated as perfect beings, adored even, and nopony ever even tries to understand us. Even my sister's student has trouble with this, and she's known her on a personal level for years.”
“So when you asked me at the wedding, I could see you wanting to dance with Luna, not the princess. I could have been wrong, but now I can see that I wasn't.” she said, punctuating the last part with a kiss on the cellist's forehead.
“So trust me, you'll be fine. And for your parents, I really doubt they would stop loving you just because you like mares, and if they do, it means they're not worthy of you.”
“The choice, however, is yours to make.” added the princess somewhat wistfully.
A short and awkward break later, the now blushing cellist admitted: “Actually, I've already made my choice.” A quick peck on the blue cheek. “You didn't even need to say anything else after that first kiss.”
Then, they went to Octavia's apartment, and spent the rest of the night there. The guest room, however, was left unused.
Well, they didn't do anything like that. While Octavia had accepted her sexual orientation, she was still far from actually doing it, and was way too tired and drunk to desire anything else than sleep. Besides, who does that on the first date? Octavia certainly not. No, they just cuddled each other to sleep. Perfectly innocent.
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Ya, i'd stick eith the shorter chapters. The pacing is fine, but the quality kind of suffers. I, so far, have not read a single story either full of. Or occasional, long chapters that i liked due to poor quality. This is far from the worst, though. Keep up the good work.
4453329 Thanks, and I know, I've felt it, I've felt terrible writing this whole thing, but I didn't want to try and cut it up into smaller part, plus I didn't think it would be a good idea to separate what's happened in this chapter into smaller ones.
But yeah, I agree, I hate long chapters, and writing them is the most frustrating thing.
A very lovely and cute story. It's an odd and uncommon shipping but it's not unwelcome. I really did enjoy this very much so. I hope to see more of this story!
4554613 Thanks! I thought it would be good fun and exercice to write about this ship :3 and there will be more chapters soon(ish), I've just been quite busy with school lately (close to the end of the year, which implies a billion and half a million projects to work on >. <)
4555108 Oh yes, I do understand about school. But there is no rush. I just really enjoyed it. I know all the other shippings with Luna and Tavi, either were one shot or they stopped writing after so long.
4555132 To be honest, I originally wanted this to be a oneshot, but then laziness happened and I ended up going "eh, I'll write the rest in the next chapters". And then I started adding stuff. To be honest in my head the story's practically finished, just needa write it down.