Of Contracts and Octades

by Nighttime Hazards

Ch2

The warmth of the sun’s rays radiated into my quiet home through the propped-open window. A gust of brisk air slipped into the kitchen, sending an acute shiver down the length of my spine.

The table was encircled by Vinyl Scratch – who was tapping her hoof against the smooth surface rather peevishly, Bon-Bon – who was sipping gradually at her mug of water to avoid making eye-contact with anypony else, myself – who was on the verge of tears and muttering incoherent comments to myself as a form of self-motivation, and finally Starburst, who wasn’t doing much, quite honestly, but she did seem interested in that bird residing just outside the window.

We had been sitting here in awkward silence for what felt like ages, which in reality was only, at most, a whole whopping hour. My mind was like a jumbled puzzle by this point; I was so emotionally conflicted I was unstable. I had never been this close to my breaking point before. And I was truly, genuinely, afraid of what was going to happen next – to me, to my reputation, to my life…

Vinyl’s tail swept across the floor in synch with the ticking of the clock above her and the tapping of her own hoof. “Alright, are you going to say it or should I?” Her question was directed at me, although her irritated gaze was fixated on Starburst.

“Don’t say anything,” I returned with a strained, almost pleading tone of voice. “Please.”

“But we should discuss this issue!”

“And what’s there to discuss?!” I slammed my hoof down on the table and everypone jumped with a start. “My life is ruined! Do you know what this marriage is going to do to my reputation, Vinyl Scratch, DO YOU?! My name will be tarnished! I will be nothing more than a disgrace, perceived by the greater society as a Lesmarian! A FILLY-FOOLER! I won’t be capable of showing my face around town – or anywhere else for that matter!”

The DJ exhaled an exasperated sigh. “So why not just make the wedding private? You don’t even have to acknowledge each other in public as anything more than friends.”

I massaged my throbbing temples. “Starburst, please read the fine print to Vinyl Scratch.”

The contract lifted from Starburst’s bag in an umbra of silver magic. It snapped outwards with a flourish that could have torn it at the seams, or so I figured (and I was thoroughly surprised when it didn’t). Starburst cleared her throat and spoke with professional clarity, “Bottom two lines state: the marriage between the firstborn of Sun Striker and Winter Eclipse and the firstborn of Maple Leaf and Tem-Tempo must be witnessed and unified by Princess Celestia. The former born must invite no less than fifty guests from their residing town, city, or district, and the latter born must invite another fifty from their residing town, city, or district.”

Bon-Bon and Vinyl Scratch exchanged glances. The Earth Pony responded first, “That’s enough to spread the word throughout all of Ponyville in a week.”

“Exactly.” I slumped in my chair and groaned, defeated and devastated, maybe even a little broken. “What am I going to do?”

“Get divorced?” Vinyl supplied.

“Can’t,” I replied, “that’s the next sentence in the contract’s fine print.”

Starburst slid off her chair with grace and clopped over to me. “Well I for one think marriage is a great thing!”

I slammed both hooves down this time, but only Starburst didn’t flinch. “HOW IS THIS A GREAT THING?! I am absolutely appalled – no, mortified – that you would even suggest such an optimistic outlook on this situation!”

The Unicorn scoffed. “Please, Tavi –”

“Don’t call me that!”

“–marriage isn’t about reputation. In fact, marriage is the joining of two souls meant to belong together! It doesn’t matter what gender, race, or age. Love is a powerful magic, and so long as the stars exist in the sky love will carry on and help two Ponies hurtle over all the challenges in life they will face…” She touched Octavia’s shoulder. “Because they’re facing their challenges together.”

I abruptly turned away from her. “Easy for you to say. We do not love each other, Starburst! This marriage means nothing!”

Her ears folded back against her head like a scolded filly. “Fine, if that’s how you wanna play… Challenge accepted.”

I felt anger flare through every fiber of my being like a wild fire. “YOU THINK THIS IS A GAME?!” I roared, shooting out of my seat.

“Nope.” She really wasn’t fazed my outbursts, was she? “I’ll just make you fall in love with me.”

That statement caught me off guard. I settled and sat back on my hunches, toying with my bristled hair that had ruffled up during my fit of rage. “What makes you think I am stupid enough to fall in love with you?” I internally winced at the harshness lining my tone like a sheet of ice.

“Because you have no choice,” Bon-Bon answered for her, getting up from the table. “You have to Octavia. Unless you can find some way to break this contract you’re going to get unified by Princess Celestia.”

“I’ll try to make this process as least painful as possible!” Starburst exclaimed, seemingly pleased with herself that she had ended this argument in all favor of herself. “And, I’ll set the wedding ceremony for this autumn. That’ll give me two months to win you over! Here, we can start now!”

I instantly didn’t like the sound of that. “Why are you smirking?”

The box was much heavier to move than I had expected, even with assistance from Vinyl Scratch helping me push it up the steps. I wasn’t very sure what resided inside the cardboard casing, but it was very, very dense, too much for Vinyl and Star to lift with their magic. Starburst lifted a crate of her personal belonging with telekinesis in our wake, and every time I briefly glanced back a smirk was still plastered on her face. Of course my childhood friend had to grow into her mother’s all-sass-and-business genes, because that was exactly what I needed right now.

“Why can’t you get your own place again?” Vinyl asked after we reached the top of the stair case to catch a breather.

“Can’t afford it.” The opposing Unicorn responded matter-of-factly, trotting by us with her braided tail swinging to her pace.

“But your parents were royalty!” I admonished, pushing against the box again. “Shouldn’t you have more money than the Princesses combined right now?”

“Not me. I work for my earnings!” Starburst headed instinctively to her new room beside mine and entered, lowering the crate onto the bed. “As a matter of fact, I get my income from Princess Celestia herself, through my boss of course. But because I’m not needed that often, my account tends to deplete to a minimum between each work period.”

Vinyl and I pushed the box into the center of the floor before I backed away and questioned, almost cautiously, “Does the Princess know about this contract?”

“Nope.” She proceeded to remove some of the items contained in the crate and place them haphazardly on the bed. “I did tell my boss, though, although he’s not sure who I’m supposed to be marrying.” Suddenly, a snow globe dropped over the edge – “oh no!” – but I snapped it up first, catching it easily in one hoof. “Nice save, Tavi! Hey, you remember this, don’t you?”

She clasped the object with her own hooves and turned the dial. Soothing, orchestrated music produced in the form of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star filled the brims of the room. The flurries of fake star-shaped snow danced around inside the glass orb, covering the forest landscape in white. The snowman inside caught some flakes in the folds of his top hat. “I remember,” I uttered, allowing the memory to slither out from the forgotten corners of my mind. “You got it for me for my birthday all those years ago. And here I thought I had just lost it.”

“You can keep it,” she remarked, “I don’t have any use for it, obviously.”

Bon-Bon poked her head in the door, a quill tipped with obsidian ink in one hoof and a sheet of paper in the other. There was a smudge on the edge of her nose. “Was Berry Punch on the guest list or on the avoidance list? Or am I thinking of Roseluck?”

“Berry Punch was guest, Roseluck was avoidance. How did you mix those two up?” I excused myself and headed back downstairs with the other Earth Pony who was tasked with making a guest list for my fifty Ponies.

“Apple Family?”

“All of them.”

“Rainbow Dash?”

We descended the stairs and trotted over to the kitchen table before I answered her. “So long as she does not break anything, I do not want that petulant annoyance causing another Grand Galloping Gala fiasco on my wedding day, not that this whole situation isn’t already heading in that direction…”

Bon-Bon sighed and jotted down the cerulean Pegasus’s name. “Alright, that’s eight so far if I include myself and Vinyl Scratch. Should I just jot down a bunch of names and get back to you tomorrow so you can cross off whoever you don’t want?”

“That sounds like a much better idea.”

“I’ll be heading home then.” With a quick farewell she took her few items and exited without a single glance back over her shoulder.

I returned upstairs to find Starburst and Vinyl Scratch moving around objects to fill Star’s new room, and, noticing that they were chatting up a storm and getting along just fine, I snuck by, slipping into my room. “OK Octavia,” I stated boldly to my reflection in the oval mirror suspended on the wall, flexing my facial muscles in an attempt to scowl. “Be brave! This is just some stupid little contract! You are bigger than this!”

There had to be some way to get rid of this binding contract. I needed to break this agreement one way or another – my reputation depended on it! If I wanted to keep my perfect life I had to resolve this issue before it got any worse.
No real ideas hit me, so I settled in my musician’s corner, picked up my cello, and started to play. Music had always calmed my agitated nerves, even as a filly (even though I, admittedly, didn’t value such a beautiful instrument back then. To me it was the most sinister thing to have been invented since high heeled boots. Those, in particular, were especially evil). The strings vibrated motion into my bones.

Memories flooded back to me.

“You should always ask for help, Octavia,” my mother avowed as she lifted me onto a stool to reach the counter. “Sometimes it’s much easier to accomplish a difficult task by working with somepony, rather than by yourself.”

“But I like doing things myself,” I challenged, “that way I do not have to worry about anypony dragging me down!”

I bit my tongue and shook the flashback from my head. The opposing force was far too overwhelming for me to handle; I found myself fighting a losing battle against the fragments residing within my own mind.

“Who says anypony will drag you down?” Tem-Tempo tapped her hind hoof to the beat of the music flowing throughout our urban home from the living room. The record player still worked like a charm, even after all the years of wear and abused it had endured. “Sometimes, in order to understand something greater than yourself you must listen to its music – the tempo of its soul.”

“How am I supposed to hear somepony’s soul?” I touched my chest as if expecting to feel my soul, rather than the steady rhythm of my heart. “You mean their heart?”

“No, their soul. The heart is a doorway to the soul, however, but in order to comprehend the heart you need to coincide with that pony’s tempo.” She swung her obsidian tail to the music’s tune as it picked up its pace.

“None of this makes sense to me, Mother.”

“One day you will understand my love.” She leaned down and pressed a kiss against my brow before returning to the counter to prepare dinner. “You will need to seek the help of another to fully see the picture. Or, in this case, hear the complete song.”

“Like what kind of other?”

“One day, Octavia, somepony will understand your heart better than you could possibly fathom. And that’s when you find your other.”

I snapped out of my daze. And several moments later the floor rushed up to me.

Then it was dark.

Author's Note:

Next chapter will be much longer. Sorry if it's not that great, I'm really bad at understanding how to write a romance. It's outside my comfort zone. But hey, practice makes perfect!

Comments

[Syvvak]

Wow. Was NOT expecting this to update. It was a pleasant surprise.
This story has a premise I have yet to see. I read the first chapter when you first posted it and was wowed. I hope the next chapter doesn't take as long to come out. You've got something good here. Don't lose it.

[Syvvak]

I snapped out of my daze. And several moments later the floor rushed up to me.

You either need to get rid of the "And" or switch the period to a comma. And a comma after "later".