Colton and Daisy

by Allonsbro

Chapter 8: Here we go...

Chapter 8: Here we go…

Colton and Blues walked in the back door. The living room was on the way to the kitchen so they looked in on Octavia. She was trembling, barely able to hold the tea Bluenote had made for her. Bluenote and Lyra were sitting next to her on the couch, one on either side, helping her to calm down. Bluenote saw them standing in the doorway and shook her head, indicating Octavia wasn’t quite ready.

As they neared the kitchen, Colton thought he smelled something burning. As he walked in his fears were confirmed. Rose was using a mouth mitt to pull a lump of charcoal out of the oven that Colton could only assume was the casserole. Seyval was rearing up on his hind legs trying to disperse the smoke that was filling the room with his front hooves.

“What happened?” asked Blues.

“I had to go into the shop to help some customers and somepony…” she said glaring daggers at Seyval, “was too busy ogling Lilly to tell me the oven was beeping.”

“Hey,” Seyval tried to defend himself. “I wasn’t ogling her. My parents raised me better than that. I was admiring the flowers on her desk.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Well anyway, the casserole is ruined. What are going to do? We don’t have time to make another one.”

Colton walked over to the pantry to see if there was anything they could use. There wasn’t much. “Let’s see... Rose, start boiling a pot of water.” He pulled some carrots and broccoli out of the pantry and took them over to the sink. “I’ll start with these. We can make boiled carrots and broccoli. It’s not much, but it’ll have to work.”

Rose boiled the water while Colton peeled the carrots. Once the water was warm enough, they put the vegetables in the pot. The vegetables were almost ready when the door connecting the house to the shop opened and Carrot and Daisy walked in. Carrot was walking behind Daisy, covering her eyes.

“Carrot, are you sure that covering my eyes is really necessary?” said Daisy. “I can smell the food cooking so I already know that he’s made dinner.”

“There’s more to the surprise than that,” said Carrot excitedly.

“Well, can I at least see him? Is he here? I didn’t get to see him yesterday or all day today.”

“I’m right here, Daisy,” he said, trotting up to her and taking hold of her front hoof. He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek.

“Where were you yesterday?’ Daisy asked. “I went over to see you but Seyval just told me you had gone out. He wouldn’t tell me anything else.”

“I went to Hoofington to get something for tonight,” he said. “Dinner’s almost ready and I guarantee you’ll love what I have planned. Go on upstairs and get ready, but don’t come down until I tell you.”

She giggled. “Alright, sweetie,” said Daisy. “Dinner smells really good. I can’t wait. Hang on…” she sniffed the air again. “Did something burn?”

“Don’t worry about that. We just had a little accident, nothing to worry about.”

“Alright, if you’re sure,” she said, still sounding a little worried. She reached around with her other hoof in her temporary blindness until she found Colton’s face and leaned in and kissed him. “I’ll see you in a little while.”

Carrot led her over to the stairs and helped her up, still covering her eyes.

Colton took a few deep breaths to try and quell the nervousness that was rapidly threatening to overcome him. He went into the kitchen and helped Rose finish dinner. Octavia had regained her composure by now and she and the musicians went outside to finish preparing to play. When the vegetables were done they were strained and Colton added a few spices for flavor. Dinner being finished, Colton took his suit into the bathroom to get changed. He put his suit on and looked in the mirror, adjusting his deep blue bowtie.

“Okay, you can do this Colton,” he said to himself. “Just stay calm and tonight will go smoothly. Let’s go over the plan again. Dinner, some slow dancing, go for a moonlit walk in the park, eat dessert under the stars, then pop the question. Oh, Celestia and Luna help me.”

After continuing to give himself a pep talk for a few minutes, he came out and went into the back yard.

“Is everything ready?” he asked.

“The band is a-go,” said Blues, giving a little salute.

“Dinner’s ready,” said Rose.

“Wait staff ready,” said Seyval, wearing a red bowtie.

With unbelievably good timing, Carrot opened a window upstairs and called down, “Daisy’s ready.”

“Alright, here we go,” said Colton. “Send her down, Carrot.”

He turned to all his friends standing before him who had helped to make tonight so special. “Thanks for all your help everypony. I can’t tell you all how much everything you’ve done tonight means to me.”

“We’re happy to help, Colton,” said Rose.

“Anything for you, bro,” said Seyval.

“No problem, Colt,” said Blues. “Now go meet that mare, and let’s get the question popped.”

“Huh?” said Rose. “Question…what…” She gasped. “You didn’t tell me that part! What are you waiting for? Get in there!”

Colton turned and went into the house and walked over to the stairs. He began taking deep breaths to calm himself. He heard the sound of hoofsteps coming down and turned and saw her. She was absolutely gorgeous. She wore a sleeveless, sparkling dress of an off white color with light blue and light green swirls. Her mane had been done up in a French twist and had a few tiny flower barrettes in it. She had on mascara and just enough blush to give her cheeks a light twinge of pink. Just looking at her made him forget how nervous he was.

“Wow,” Colton breathed. “You look amazing.”

“Thank you,” she said, smiling that little smile he loved so much. “You don’t look so bad yourself. Shall we?”

“Yes, we shall,” he said offering her a fore hoof.

The two walked to the back door. Before going out, Colton waved to the band to have them start playing. He opened the door and escorted Daisy into the yard. The sun had begun to set by now and the orange light mixed with the pink illumination from the lanterns made the yard look spectacular. The band was playing slow, soft background music, creating the perfect setting for a romantic dinner.

“What do you think?” he asked.

The way her eyes lit up when as she took it all in made his heart skip. She smiled and said, “It’s beautiful, Colton. I can’t believe you went to all this trouble. You even got our friends to be the band and…oh my gosh. Is that Lady Octavia?”

“Yes it is. Blues and Bluenote asked her to perform for us and she graciously accepted.”

“Wow, I can’t believe it. Lady Octavia is performing in my back yard!”

The two of them sat down at the table. Seyval came out with two bowls of salad, a box of matches and the bottle of wine balanced on his back. He deposited them on the table and used the matches to light the candle.

“There you are sir, mademoiselle. I shall return to give you the second course when you are finished,” he said. He was using an accent that was a very poor imitation of somepony from upper class Canterlot, eliciting smiles and snickers from the couple. He turned and walked back into the house. The couple began eating their salads and talking about their day.

“So, what did you and Carrot do while she was distracting you for me?” Colton asked.

“Well, we went to her house and chatted for a bit. Then Dinky brought Ruby over and we taught them to play chess.”

“Chess?” Colton asked, surprised. “I wouldn’t think Dinky would have the patience for that game.” He took the bottle of wine and began pulling at the cork with his teeth to open it.

“She actually managed quite well and the game managed to hold her interest. She and Carrot eventually won, but Ruby and I managed to come close to putting their king in check. Carrot and I didn’t even need to help them that much once they learned the basic-“

POP

Suddenly, the cork relented its firm hold on the inside of the bottle and came out. Unfortunately, this caused two things to happen. First the cork, having nothing to stop it, shot into Colton’s mouth causing him to cough and sputter as he almost swallowed it. Second, there was a significant amount of pressure in the bottle suddenly released, causing it to spray some of its contents all over him.

“Oh my gosh, are you alright?” asked Daisy, concerned.

Seyval, who had seen what happened through the window, rushed out with a few towels to dry his brother off. Colton coughed a few more times and spat the cork out. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, his voice a little raspy, as he grabbed a towel and dried himself off. He looked down to see specks of purple on his shirt and a small pool in his salad bowl. ‘Great,’ he thought, but managed to cover up his disappointment with a smile.

“Could you take this away, Seyval, I think we’re ready for the main course.”

Daisy, who had eaten most of her salad while Colton told her about his day, passed her bowl and Seyval took then inside. He returned a few moments later with two plates of boiled carrots and broccoli on his back and placed them on the table. Colton poured each of them a glass of wine.

“So what did you do after playing chess with the girls?” he asked her.

“Well,” said Daisy finishing a bite of her dinner. “Once they learned how all the pieces moved, they didn’t need much help. We played until Berry came home to take over watching them and then we went to town. First we did some grocery shopping to restock Carrot’s fridge. We went to the spa and the salon and we dropped by Carousel Boutique, where Rarity fixed up this dress for me and invited us to lunch next week.”

The conversation continued until the meal was finished.

“Thank you so much for tonight, Colton,” said Daisy as Seyval took their plates away. “Dinner was delicious. This was very sweet of you.”

“The night’s not over yet, my dear. I’ve still got a few more surprises,” he said as he came around to her side of the table and offered her a hoof.

She took his hoof and he led her over to an open part of the yard near where the band was. He nodded to Octavia and she and Lyra stepped forward and began to play a song they had composed in music school. Colton took Daisy’s front hooves and they both stood on their hind legs, leaning into one another. She wrapped her arms around his neck. He wrapped one hoof around her waist and placed the other on her shoulder and they began to dance.

The two of them swayed back and forth as they moved to the slow, melodic notes that Lyra plucked and felt the melody that Octavia wove with the movement of her bow wash over them. He gazed into her deep green eyes and she gazed back into his blue ones. They both lost themselves in each others’ eyes and he pulled her closer to him.

Suddenly they realized that the music had stopped. They looked over to find the band smiling fondly at them.

“How long ago did you stop?” asked Daisy, the two of them returning to all four hooves.

“A while,” answered Bluenote. “They repeated the song once and then we didn’t want to ruin the moment.”

The two of them blushed.

“C’mon, you two,” said Blues. “Let’s see if you can really dance. Hey, Octy, you know anything by DJ-Pon3?”

“Uh, Blues, I don’t think that’s…” Colton started to object.

“Actually, Vinyl once approached me for help with her recent album, ‘Across the Spectrum.’ It was a collection of her music with music from other genres mixed in. I suppose that would be appropriate.”

“Terrific,” said Blues stepping behind his piano. “I think I know the one you’re talking about. Scratching Harmony, right?”

Octavia nodded.

“But I don’t…” Colton tried to explain. He was a terrible dancer. All he could ever manage to do was slow dance to slow songs like they had just done, or bob up and down to the beat on faster songs.

Octavia lifted her bow and began to play. Colton listened for a moment to the faster pace of the song and started to sweat. Daisy placed an understanding hoof on his shoulder.

“Come on,” she said. “We’ll keep it simple. Just follow my lead.”

They went up on their hind legs and Colton let Daisy lead him in a basic waltz. He stepped on her hooves a couple of times, apologizing profusely. She just smiled and kept looking into his eyes. Eventually he got the hang of it and their bodies went into perfect sync. By the time the song was half over, he had taken the lead. Deciding to try something else, he spun her, making her giggle. Near the end of the song he tried putting her into a dip, but he didn’t bring her up quite right and managed to fall backwards. Having nothing holding her up she fell down on top of him. The two of them stared at each other for a moment and started laughing.

“Not bad,” she complemented. “You learn fast.”

He lifted his head and kissed her. “You’re a good teacher.”

They helped each other up and Colton turned to the musicians.

“I’d like to thank you all again for helping me tonight.”

“It was our pleasure, Mr. Vines,” said Octavia, taking a bow.

“Anything for you, Colt,” agreed Blues. “Now go on, you two, get outta here. The night’s still young and Colton’s got even more planned for you.”

“More surprises?” said Daisy. “How much better can this possibly get?”

“You’ll see,” said Colton. “Come on, the next surprise is after a moonlit walk through the park.”

They went through the house, Colton grabbing his saddlebags on the way, and headed out the front and through the marketplace towards the park.