Stroll

by re- Yamsmos

Worst

Nevertheless, Octavia absolutely loved school. Whether it be a Monday, or a Tuesday, or a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, Octavia absolutely loved going to school, where she could see all of her friends and overall have as much fun as was possible. Perhaps one day she could make a new friend or two, or maybe swing on the swingset longer than she had the day prior, or even something else entirely. It all didn't matter to her in the end. She absolutely loved everything about school.

Even the bad parts were practically a summer vacation for her. Such things like tests, or quizzes, or the dreaded action of waking up early every morning. Now, Octavia didn't take the local carriage to school, instead walking with her mother to school where she would talk nonstop about what exciting things she were to do that day, and her mother would listen endlessly, a smile on her face. Stopping outside the front door, young Octavia would receive a hug and a quick farewell, both she would return, and then she would put on a brave face, grin, and walk into school to start her day.

Yes. Even waking up early in the morning was amazing to Octavia. Even if it was at six o' clock every morning, which it was for her after all.

She would wake up, a smile on her face and her mane bedraggled as if she had had a fight with a lion the night before.

Those wondrous mornings, at six o' clock sharp.

Nowadays, getting up early meant that she was due for another day of playing music inside her household. No smile on her face, but the bedraggled mane was always still present.

Today, Octavia woke up, and when she woke up, she wasn't rousing herself from deep slumber to head off to school, and especially not this early in the morning. Tiredly cracking a single eyelid open, Octavia smacked her lips audibly and immediately began to feel a dull ringing coursing through her head. Shutting her eyes tightly from the sunlight, she raised a hoof to scratch the back of her head, groaning. Shaking her head, she nipped at the air and finally opened both her eyes.

She frowned.

That was funny. Looking up, she found thousands of trees sprouting from the ceiling, reaching a bright blue sky barely noticeable underneath her. Their branches quietly swaying in the light breeze, the trees watched her silently as she watched in kind. She blinked. And then blinked again. Octavia suddenly felt a lump form in her throat, and she swallowed it as realization began to sink in. Eyes widening, she glanced about in a panic, pawing at the rope currently confining her in the middle of the air.

Repeating a flurry of denial to herself, she grit her teeth and looked up to find a single rope extending to the top of her vision. It ended, the rope finding itself attached to the large branch of an even larger tree. Looking around, Octavia touched her hooves to her chest and tried to swing herself inside the net. Gulping, she searched for the memory of how she found herself in this obvious trap, but couldn't. Something must have happened. Something must have gone wrong. She was home free.

Octavia felt her lower lip wobble almost unnoticeably.

She was almost home.

Shutting her eyes, she sucked in a long breath, held it, and let it out as she fanned the air in front of her delicately with her hooves. Still stuck with a hitched breathing, Octavia began to calm herself and attempt to get a better survey of her surroundings. In. And now out. Okay. Okay, she had this. Octavia cleared her throat, eyes still wide with fear. She couldn't let that get in her way. She had to figure out how to escape. And escaping would be hard, seeing as how she was suspended upside-down in a large net in the dense depths of the Everfree Forest.

A chill blew through her fur, and Octavia's teeth involuntarily chattered as the net began to swing around from the wind. Turning around with it, she narrowed her eyes and strained them, looking for a way out but also scanning the environment for anything of use. Nothing but grass, dirt, and trees met her sights, and Octavia let air out from her nose as the net kept swinging. Looking to her right, she waited for the trap to allow her a new cone of vision, and suddenly caught the sight of a pony smiling at her.

Gasping, Octavia raised a hoof to her mouth and stared at the pony.

The pony laughed a short laugh.

And the net suddenly stopped.

Walking toward her slowly, the pony's shadowed figure began to dissipate in favor of his real one, and Octavia found herself staring at the green pony from the shack the night before. Giving a chuckle, he halted a foot away from Octavia, adjusting his armor with a hoof and jostling the crossbow currently holstered by his side. Octavia furrowed her brow, a frown forming on her lips.

She hissed, "What did you do to the Sheriff and the Deputy?"

"I'd rather not say."

No. No no no. Octavia's heart began to beat furiously. Sheriff Water and Deputy Beagle, he... he didn't did he? No no he couldn't have. The bandit noticed this and shook his crossbow sitting on his side. "You wouldn't want it to happen to you though, would you?" Octavia drew her neck back and bit her lower lip, feeling that wobbling coming back from the grave. Blinking, she looked to her right and avoided eye contact with the bandit. She swallowed another lump, this one having appeared without her knowledge. Opening her mouth, she let out a breath that came more shaky than she would have liked. Looking back at him quickly, she raised her hooves and shook them.

"Please don't kill me, please!" Octavia brought her hooves together, shaking them as one. "I beg of you, please–"

The bandit raised a hoof, silencing her. "I wasn't planning to. You'll make a great hostage. We'll need that once we get to Lock Jaw and–" he stopped, eyes widening. Narrowing them, he growled and swiftly looked her dead in the eyes. "...and you didn't hear that, got it?" Not giving Octavia time to respond, his smile returned and he began to pace back and forth in front of her like some teacher talking to his students. "I gotta admit, Miss, helping those Lawponies out was a pretty damn stupid idea. Just look at you, huh? Ha ha, you don't belong out here! You aristocrat, you should've stuck to Canterlot and your nice little mansion! Can't wait to see whose daughter you are, I'm sure you'll fetch quite a price from 'em."

Octavia's hoof went to her bowtie, touching it gingerly.

The bandit laughed loudly, a leg at his stomach. "Just! Just... what do you think you could've accomplished out here? Why in the wide world of Equestria did you think you'd be cut out for running around out here?! What are you, some kind of pompous little mare from up in the city?" He stopped, looking at her with a big grin that Octavia wished she could wipe off with a well-placed punch. "I bet you've never even stepped hoof outside the city walls, huh?"

Octavia growled down in her throat somewhere, her forelegs crossing. "I'll have you know that my father is a highly successful bank owner from Manehattan, and he will not take kindly to you abducting his daughter! He will be upon you in a matter of hours, you pathetic stallion! I think it wise if you turn yourself in right now, along with the rest of your merry band of bandits. That is, if you like to live."

The bandit blinked at her in silence for three heartbeats, before he burst out laughing. His eyes shut, he gave Octavia time to glance about nervously. This may have been harder than she had previously thought. Straightening herself and putting on her best posh expression, Octavia waited for the pony to stop, and stop he did after a moment of wheezing. Coughing into a hoof, he chuckled to her, "You? Daughter of a successful bank owner, huh? What's your name, then?"

Octavia blinked. She glared, then spat as hard as she could muster, "My name is Melody–"

"That ain't what the Sheriff said now, was it? You telling me he was lying before you ran off?"

Octavia shakily cleared her throat. "He was.. he was making a mistake you see, Chell is the name of–"

"So it's Chell, huh?"

"No, it's–"

"Chell. That's a nice name, Miss." He raised a hoof to his chin, tapping it in tandem with his repeating, "Chell, Chell, Chell. Like the instrument, right?"

"Yes," Octavia said, forelegs still crossed. Staring upward and ahead, she raised her chin up and finished, "Yes, like the instrument."

"Great. Then you can play us some music while we wait for our money–"

BOOM

Octavia's eyes grew, and her mouth hung agape as she glanced down to the bandit. His head was currently bashed against a collection of tree branches on the ground, his entire figure unmoving. Looking up his body, she found his crossbow fidgeting slightly from its awkward positioning against the dirt. He didn't move. Octavia gasped sharply, hind hooves scrambling about in a desperate panic to get away from the possibly dead body. Raising both of her hooves against her mouth, she flattened her ears against her head and watched the pony for any signs of movement.

None came. Instead, a bush rustled nearby, and Octavia slowly turned her head to look its way.

From the shrub came a hulking figure, and Octavia could only stare in silence as a brown griffon stalked her way, a likewise bulky stick grasped in a claw. The griffon stepped across the grass, his light tan armor gleaming in the sunlight that peeked through the leaves of the trees hanging above them. Bending over slightly, he hummed at the body of the Pegasus and about-faced. Octavia blinked at him as he stared at her as well in utter silence. Furrowing his brow, his head went up and down her body and tilted, the sage scarf around his neck bunching up in retaliation.

His blue eyes rolled, and he spoke in a gruff voice, "He's not dead, for Sputnik's sake."

Octavia cleared her throat. A stutter escaped her lips, "Wh-What'd you... do to him?"

The griffon gave a short snort, tossing his stick up into the air and catching it in both claws. Raising his hindlegs upward, he looked at the stick and explained, "This gun right here is powered by a knockout spell. Very efficient, and very accurate." Returning one claw to the ground, he rested the gun's body on his shoulder and continued, "You can be of pretty good use to me and my group, ma'am."

Octavia coughed, putting on a straight face and failing the verbal part, "A-And what exactly would be the purpose?" She slapped herself in her head, but crossed her forelegs once more and raised her chin. This action came out rather sloppily, and so it took her about three very quick tries to complete successfully. She glared at the griffon regally. The griffon cocked an eyebrow.

"We need a pony, and I'm willing to help you out of there if you're willing to cooperate."

"And erm, why do you not believe I'll just simply run off once you do, hmm? What if I... scurry away while your back is turned from me?"

Octavia hacked up something quietly as the griffon simply adjusted his grip on the gun currently sitting on his shoulder. Octavia parted her lips, letting out a large smack as she did so that she knew the griffon caught. Sighing and bowing her head, she looked at him with a light frown and hesitantly nodded her head. The griffon gave a smirk, the gun-wielding arm placing the weapon in its holster on his back. "Well good then, I'd rather not have to knock you out and drag you there." Looking up, he quickly said, "Hang on then," and walked up to her. Raising a single claw a few inches above his head, he waited for a second, adjusted his aim, and swung.

Octavia fell to the ground in a heap, her left foreleg taking the brunt of the fall. Gritting her teeth, Octavia let out a heavy groan and peered up to find herself looking into the blue eyes of the griffon. Glaring at her, he tilted his head to the right and tapped a claw against the ground.

"Well, come on then."

Comments

[the other sans]

I'm pretty sure that the griffon found out her... nett worth.

[dereturd]

Octavia growled down in her throat somewhere, her forelegs crossing. "I'll have you know that my father is a highly successful bank owner from Manehattan, and he will not take kindly to you abducting his daughter! He will be upon you in a matter of hours, you pathetic stallion! I think it wise if you turn yourself in right now, along with the rest of your merry band of bandits. That is, if you like to live."

The bandit blinked at her in silence for three heartbeats, before he burst out laughing. His eyes shut, he gave Octavia time to glance about nervously. This may have been harder than she had previously thought. Straightening herself and putting on her best posh expression, Octavia waited for the pony to stop, and stop he did after a moment of wheezing. Coughing into a hoof, he chuckled to her, "You? Daughter of a successful bank owner, huh? What's your name, then?"

Would've worked if she had 75+ Speech skill.