Love's many directions

by Lunasservant1985

Hunger Pains

As I made my way outside the shop and down the street, For the first time in forever, I took a good look around. A few of the Pegasus clouds where too heavy and it began to shower lightly, good thing Rarity vacuum packed my suit up. Everywhere I looked the face of the mare of my dreams seemed to be following me. Looking up my eyes where drawn to a billboard; a minty green mare with a harp like instrument on her flank looked back at me, she stood before a red velvety background, words in a fancy scrawl beside her head.

Midas cognac: it's the golden touch. It said as the spokes-mare gazed back at me with a devious smile, a liquor glass in the phantom limb hand ponies seemed to have at the ends of their hooves. The mare changed; her coat became silken grey, her mane charcoal black, and the text shifted like an anagram being solved. Love; it's a mystery no matter where you call home. Billboard Octavia winked and took a drink before swaying her hips out to the side like Mae West, a hoof behind her head. I half expected the board Octavia to say, "come up and see me sometime."

What was I doing? I knew how I felt about her, but could she ever feel an inkling the same to me? Was I coming on too strong just because of some...dream? It couldn't hurt to try. I was so caught up in my thoughts, that I didn't see the wood panel I slammed into until the stars cleared from my eyes. I got my bearings and found It was a stand selling farm fresh apples, plump and very ripe.

"Whoa! easy thar partner, I know my apples look good but its nothing to get all distracted over." Joked an orange and blonde mare with a Stetson cow-boy hat on her head. she looked at me with a soft smile and she seemed to radiate a certain charm and an air of hospitality from her.

"Sorry Ms. Just very caught up in my thoughts I guess." I made sure none of the country mare's wares had fallen off the stand and fixed the ones that my...accident had knocked loose, no harm no foul as the saying goes.

"They sure look good Ms." I commented to her.

"darn tootin they do mister, a whole buckin season still to come too, but these windfalls bring in some coin until than."

"Excuse me?!" I said in surprise though I had in actuality misheard her.

"Oh I forgot, y`all human folk aren't all too familiar with certain things like that...no offense partner I mean that as because your a city boy, I'd have said that even you where a stallion yerself." She said with a witty chuckle in her throat.

"It uh it's not that I thought you said, oh never mind." Yeah running into goofs with dialect, happens more often than you think with us humans around here. I took notice of the apples the lovely country mare had all lined up nice and orderly on her wagon. They all where about the same size, very plump and red, and unlike the ones I knew all too well from the supermarkets and grocery stores from back home, they didn't have the air of being artificially reddened or that waxy coating of fertilizers, and pesticides buildup on their skins. Ah the food of Equestria! I guess if there was one thing everyone...well almost everyone of my people could agree with, it was the food.

Free from either being artificially modified with a Frankenstein experiment of Celestia knows what, or being "organic" which was just industry talk for Genetically grown and modified to the point of sheer "perfection" so that only the highly paid A&P shoppers could regularly buy them. None of that existed here, all the food was...hoof raised with the bare essentials, and the vitality the best produce showed was the result of hard work and devotion to the the earth ponies ties to the very soil they labored in, no more; no less. No greater example than the one who was in my very eyes.

"Ms? I'm a little busy right now but..I was wondering if you could spare a few of your time for some...well..."

"Ahh shucks bucko, I'm always all ears, especially on slow days, still I reckon y'all best be a trifle quick, I'm only sayin on account of the possible downpour the Pegasus said may be in order today."

"Hey, what's a little rain to us?, and I was just wondering would you happen to know anything about?" And I gave her a description of the her, Octavia. Just her name was enough at that point to send my brain through the roof, but...was it for all the wrong reasons? I say this because and you'll hopefully pardon my saying this here and now, but I feel it's a necessity that ought to be addressed better now than never. I loved her yes; and you can say you love someone all you want, but there's always both a limit and fine line line between love and well...let's just say I want you all to understand that I wasn't than nor am I now or ever only thinking about that mare with only wanton desire and selfish lust on my mind. I was fully aware that no matter who...or what you are, you firstly never go into your love with someone full force and strong from the staring gate if ever, and secondly that Love isn't something that can be rushed into, even more so if someone or somepony doesn't feel exactly the same way, if she didn't feel the same way as I did, I was more than willing to back out and leave Ms. Melody be.

My apologies if I've stalled my narrative, but it would take even longer to explain why I've gone into detail like this, I just, don't want any of my dear readers to get the wrong impression of your humble if not hapless romantic friend and narrator. so moving along...

"And that about sums it all Applejack, I really like her and I think she's talented and seems nice, but what do you think? am I trying too hard?" I finished and looked right back at her wondering just what she would say.

"Partner? I don't know much about upper-class musicians like this Ms. Melody ya'll are speakin of, but I do know this. The way to a mare's heart, is in my opinion, being honest about yerself and don't go around foolishly trying ta be what ya aren't." She said this her eyes on my Rarity made new suit sealed up and ready-to-wear.

"Oh no it's not like that, I just bought it to make a good first Impression is all." I said with all the integral wit I was able to muster. With that I could then see AppleJack was still eyeing me; as if she suspected something was off about me. Can't say I wouldn't have blamed her thought. A lot of my fellow humans where notorious for being the strange and bizarre ones in this world, but I always had a strong belief that it wasn't all our fault things, even now where very...Rocky.

I always figured the adjustment period was not such a smooth transition if for only one major change coupled with all the others that we all had to face equally in our struggle to find a place among the equines that called this world of magic and mystery home. With my money dwindling from all the shopping I'd been doing, I paid for a bag of Applejack's windfalls and thanked her for everything, her demeanor being more genuinely friendly and open to my situation having seen somewhat through me.

"And hey, even if things don't go as your plannin, just member; In Equestria there's always somepony...to love somebody." She said emphasizing the "somebody" and chuckling in her throat happily. I made my way around town uncertain where to go or what to do next but with a somewhat regenerated sense of fulfillment, that got even more so as I sunk my teeth into the tender, soft skin of the windfall apple. The juice was sweeter than anything I'd ever tasted, it seemed as if that first bite was rejuvenating me, and filling the empty pain in my stomach, even though it was only doing minimal for my lorn feeling in my heart.

The earth ponies claim to never use magic or human kinds methods of growing food, and it truly showed in how the apple I munched on wasn't anything like the ones from home. Equestria seems to have its own form of magic, not the kind unicorns could pull almost out of thin air and bend the well established laws of humanity's world, but its the magic that our eyes and they're eyes couldn't see; the magic that let the Pegasus fly and build homes on bubbly clouds, that unseen sense of peace the whole land seemed enveloped in, and best of all, the way the crops the earth ponies raised just came to life with almost no input from the growers save for delicately caring for the fragile fruits and vulnerable vegetables.

Maybe it was like this here because Equestria unlike earth, didn't unceremoniously suffer a "Forbidden fruit" or "Pandora's box." All the ills and wickedness the likes of my people, the ones that happened and ever would happen, contained in a single cataclysmic event that would forever alter the pax and nirvana of a perfect world that existed before. Not that there wasn't ANY evil in they're world and it wasn't unanimously perfect, but rather such a downfall akin to the fall of human grace had ever occurred to this land...or perhaps...maybe...it did.

my thoughts almost ran away from me as I turned a corner near a humorously designed shop built to appear like a gingerbread house made out of sweet treats. My heart sank; she was there. She sat at one of the tables outside the shop a steaming mug of tea on her table top and some shortbread cookies too. To see her there just casually sipping and eating away there she was, Octavia Melody as just a normal...mare. (it's still awkward to talk this way) Even so she was dynamite drop-dead beautiful. I then noticed not far...at the same table actually another mare was seated, and it almost seemed like she was the total opposite to the apple of my eye.

The other mare had a coat of pure white; and an electric blue mane, which she styled to be slightly spiky and a bit on the bushy and bedraggled side, she covered her eyes with big red and black rimmed shades, and she had a cool laid-back attitude to her as she sat casually leaning back in her chair. A mug of cider and frosted strawberry donuts on her side of the table.

"OK, she has a friend." I said inside my head to only myself. "It's no big deal, lots of women hang around with gal pals right?" The white mare scooted over to Octavia closer, she whispered into her ear blushing, "That happens a lot too." my heart sped its pace but felt like it was starting to sink, my palms grew sweaty but also cold. The other mare made Octavia giggle and give a look of surprise but also intrigue "c'mon you can do this, just go up say high maybe mention how you love...liked her show, this means nothing beyond her having a..." The white mare placed a soft kiss on the other mare's cheek, noses rubbed together, Even I knew that was how ponies showed love and affection. even if they hadn't done ANYTHING to show it, I had a feeling that my quest ended there and then, because there was no chance of me forming any sort of bond to her, Octavia was spoken for...with another mare...

so many feelings surged through me then, it was like the stages one faces when the end is near and the final destination is just around the bend, but unlike THAT instance, I felt not acceptance...well not at first but beforehand...anger. A great and insatiable anger that set my skin ablaze and red. It was an anger at the other mare, she had taken her, Octavia angelic voiced and sweet girl that she is from me. Anger at Octavia, who could never see me as I did her, all because of what she felt for the other mare. It was an anger that made me reach for my hip, teeth grinding and spittle spraying in a hiss past the barrier of clenched teeth, as if... a pistol was holstered at my side, ready to send a single shot flying at the two mares and silence them both forever. That was the anger that tore through me and tore my heart asunder and in two.

BUT, in the next instant as I got up from burying my face in my hands, new emotions took hold. My anger seemed to melt away and in its place, I felt a great sadness. I fell into a park bench not more than twenty clicks from the sweet-shop, hands buried in my face again, the knowledge that I was out in public the one thing that kept me from sobbing uncontrolled in front so many ponies and so close to them. It was a sadness at what Instant had felt and thought under my anger, coupled with a shame and remorse so great, it made tears stream down my face with softly muffled sobs, like a child who lost a loved relative. At last the final emotional blow struck me, softly this time. Acceptance, if this is how she is than who am I to judge who loves whom? They appeared to be in love, I had no right to take that from anyone or anypony, and the least I could do was try and be happy for her.

HEY besides, even if it as what....exactly what it looks like, that didn't mean I couldn't still talk with her, at least be her friend right? so what if the mare of my dreams couldn't be anything but my dreams? that doesn't mean she would think any less of me as a person would it? would it?...The tension passed albeit my heart still a bit broken....OK very broken I dried my eyes as much as I could and adjusted myself, got up...and when I looked back the table...what I saw stunned and perked and stoked that tiny spark deep inside me...Again.

Comments

[Earbleed bass]

OK good story and I'm not trying to be mean or anything it really is good its just that I think its moving to quickly. Again good story and this is just my opinion