Stroll

by re- Yamsmos

Weaving

Fans were something that Octavia never thought she would have. Fans were things that were reserved for movie stars, or band members, or even such higher figures as government officials and the Princesses themselves. Hay, she explicitly remembered a time where a small Earth Pony filly—Sun Flower, she thinks was her name—had walked up to Octavia after one of her concerts, asking for an autograph as she waved around an inked quill and a loose sheet of paper. Quite honestly taken aback, Octavia had smiled a nervous smile, bending down to retrieve the quill before the young filly could drop it. Quickly addressing it to who she asked, the filly looked over the notepad and then stared back at Octavia, asking who Octavia Philharmonica was.

Apparently—according to the filly's mother, who came in to bring her off not a few seconds later—the filly had mistaken Octavia, the Lead Bassist for the Canterlot Symphony, for the new Wonderbolt recruit fresh out the womb and already a fan favorite, Whirley Bird. Octavia remembered watching the young mare and her mother walk off down Freemane Street, an annoyed frown placed firmly on her lips. Remaining this way, she had almost missed the rest of her companions calling their ride for the night's presence, and subsequently almost skipped the drink of wine that she sure as hay drank later that night in her hotel room.

She had stood there once she had finished, her purple eyes glancing about her luxurious quarters. Taking in the finely-knitted tapestries lining the walls that displayed various scenes of nature, staring at the grandfather clock that ticked away gently with the throbbing drum inside her head, and glaring at the obviously store-bought chandelier hanging in her admittedly large kitchen, Octavia had sighed heavily, set her wine glass on the coffee table, and thereafter fell fast asleep on the couch, only to wake up the next morning to the sound of knocking at her door and a horrible feeling in her stomach that found itself embellishing the floor not a moment later. Even with the new rotten stench in her mouth, Octavia still played at her concert that was scheduled later that day.

Fans were odd things that she shouldn't necessarily have. All she was was just a bassist in an Orchestra, nothing more nothing less. It's not like she constantly rescued puppies—as much as she wished that were true—and fighting crime wasn't too much of a strong suit of hers. She didn't think she wanted fans, yet, here she was, a harsh wind blowing across her coat and chilling her to the bone as she stood in a field of dewy grass and dampened dirt, a suspicious glare on her brow and yet another rehearsed frown planted across her face that she gave to the oddly excited-looking stallion in front of her. He smiled up at her, as if he were completely oblivious to his current state of living.

Octavia blinked, staying her expression absentmindedly as she immediately realized that she hadn't listened to a word the Unicorn had said, and he was now expecting an answer that would either destroy him or reaffirm him. Octavia opened her mouth slightly, working it around as she glanced to her right, finding the unmistakable black front claws of W, most likely waiting for her response as well. Looking back, Octavia droned out a low, "Uh..." now looking at the Unicorn.

"What?"

The Unicorn's expression didn't falter in the slightest.

He smiled happily, eyebrows dancing wildly, "I was wondering if I could get your autograph, Ms. Philharmonica!" Octavia raised a brow. "I've always tried to get it after one of your concerts, but you always looked so busy and kinda mad, so I thought I'd just go away for awhile. Plus, I always thought that one stallion would come talk to you and ask you for it anyway–"

"Wait, which stallion?"

"–and then he'd leave right after so I'd think that he got it super fast! And then I'd feel kinda dumb 'cause I could've easily gotten it then–"

"Wait, hold on, which stallion?" Octavia asked, waving a hoof around insistently.

"–but by then I'd usually be pretty far awaaay, so I'd have to go all the way baaack, and then..."

"I don't think you're gonna get much outta this one," someone suddenly whispered in her ear, catching the attention of Octavia, who swiveled about to her right to find W raising his front claw by the side of his black beak. Tilting her head forward, she furrowed her brow and received one display of a defiant pair of akimbo arms, the owner of which beginning to roll his eyes as he nodded toward the still mumbling stallion. "He's obviously pretty out of it. Might be on some kind of drug–"

"Hey, I'm clean you asshole!"

Octavia gasped, caught off-guard by the now obviously angered Unicorn's vulgarity. A hoof staying to her lips as she turned to him in likeness with a surprised W, the Unicorn glared back at her for a brief second, then suddenly switched back to a happy smile as if somepony had flicked his On / Off switch back to full functionality. Eyes now wide, Octavia listened as the stallion's new one-sided conversation topic began to trail into her musical colleagues. Her mind raced. Who was he talking about? Which stallion? She found a frown crossing her lips, only fully noticing it once W nudged her in the side with a grin on his beak.

"You all right? I don't think he's got anything interesting to say–"

"Oh that's right!" The Unicorn said, perking up and eliciting both a groan from W and a well-understandable jump from his nearby tied-up companions. "Your autograph!" He laughed. Octavia found herself struggling to find a reason to stay close to him. Her neck drew back involuntarily as his horn began to glow bright green. The Griffons standing beside and behind Octavia suddenly tensed, their Magicarms falling out of their holsters and into their aiming claws. The Unicorn, smiling nervously, waved a hoof, "Sorry! Sorry! I'm just.. getting my quill and paper..."

The Griffons, though wary, lowered their weapons as the Unicorn chuckled, his aforementioned quill and paper emerging from his saddlebags sitting behind him. Presenting it to the mare, he shook the items as if they were candy and beckoned, "Please, Ms. Philharmonica. I'd love to have your autograph." Octavia halted, a hoof currently motionless in the air. Lowering it, she looked to her left and found V staring back at her, jet black Magicarm at the ready. She growled, nodding. Octavia looked to her right, now viewing W's piercing blue eyes, his own Magicarm lying against his right shoulder. He waved a wing.

"Go on now. Whatever helps him tell us who he is and what the 'ell he wants."

Octavia sighed lightly, then turned her head and walked over to the Unicorn. Picking the quill up in her hoof—an easy and rehearsed task, seeing as how she gripped her bass and bow the same way—Octavia pressed the tip of the feather against the paper and looked into the Unicorn's eyes, asking, "Uh... should I... write something special..?"

The Unicorn giggled. To be fair, Octavia hadn't really done this before.

"Yeah," he replied, grinning with a pair of narrowed eyes. Raising a brow, Octavia looked a little to her right to find his saddlebags disappear in a flash of yellow too small for the Griffons to notice. He leaned to his right, too far, to add, "Make it out to..." he looked back to Octavia and stared into her purple eyes, the mare swearing she could see a disturbance in the sea of blue she looked back into, "...see ya later, motherbuckers."

Octavia barely had time to question his rather vulgar choice of addressing, and then even less time to realize what he was doing as she and the Unicorn were engulfed in a flash of light that surely left quite a pattern on the dirt they had stood on.

The mare realized she was falling, and a split second later she landed softly, her hooves finding refuge on what appeared to be a rather large collection of tread earth. Keeling forward, she let her head hang low as she shook it, struggling to rid herself of the ringing in her head. As she slowly peered upward with scrunched eyes, she realized all too well that she had just been teleported, presumably very far away from W and his merry band of Griffons. Groaning, Octavia looked forward, finding the yellow Unicorn less than a foot away, his attention currently focused on his saddlebags to his right.

Octavia noticed that she was breathing in heavily, and so she asked, "Wh-What did you do?" Knowing the answer and blaming her asking it on exhaustion and surprise, she added, "Where are we?"

The Unicorn spun, his saddlebags floating onto his robed back. The bags dropped, but the aura around his horn remained. Octavia's eyes narrowed.

"Oh, we're just gonna take a little walk is all."

Oh no, he did not just say what she thought he said. Octavia ducked, sweeping her right foreleg through the dirt just in time to evade the magicked stick that flew past her left shoulder and subsequently struck the yellow Unicorn in the head. As he shouted in pain with a hoof to the wounded area, Octavia sprinted toward him and grabbed the rather mean looking stick before it could hit the floor. Coiling a hoof around it, she stuck it ahead of her and nearly wobbled at the new weight gain. The Unicorn, still stumbling about, found himself knocked to the floor from a club to his gut.

Octavia, her mane now matted against her forehead, breathed in and out thickly, still stuck in her striking pose as she looked down at the injured stallion on the floor.

His groans were the only sounds reaching her from beyond her deafening heart, and then, as if snapped back to reality, her organ stopped and made way for a new noise, one that caused her to tense up as she heard it.

"Wait, is that Banana Peel? Oh! Quick!"

Octavia began to spin on her heel.

"Grab her!"

Another, definitely larger stick, came soaring at her, making contact with the back of her head and knocking her to the ground by the newly named Banana Peel's side. Her head now burning up like the sin of a thousand suns, she looked through her slowly closing eyelids and found the Unicorn laughing at her through the pain, his last words, "Nice try," echoing in her head as she blacked out.

Comments

[re- Yamsmos]

6712538 Yeeeeeeeah! Comment!

Fun fact, Deputy Beagle is named after a character in Fallout New Vegas who shares the same name.

[Litihur]

Mooooooore.

[re- Yamsmos]

6714464 Glad you've enjoyed. Currently working on the next chapter and hope to have it out by this weekend.

[the other sans]

Oh boy, this definitely looks like a... walk in the park. Or maybe even a... causal forest trek. So long as she ... sticks to it, nothing can possibly do wrong.