“Sure is a nice day today.”

“This is true…”

“…”

“…”

The tapping of hooves on a table could be heard outside the tiny café in Ponyville, as two ponies sitting on a couple of cushions had seemed to not know what they wanted to do with their time. After walking in the park for about half an hour, not talking the entire time, the belly of Fiery had begun to rumble. Octavia, having heard the rumble, suggested that the two should go get something to eat. Now the two were sitting outside at a table in front of the restaurant, waiting to be served.

“So…” Fiery spoke up, trying to break the silence between the two. “Anything interesting happening at your work place?”

Octavia stopped drinking her water and shook her head. “No, not really.”

“Oh, alright…”

Fiery began to tap on the table once again, to the annoyance of Octavia. “Could you please stop that?” She asked as politely as possible.

“Hmm?” Fiery turned his head back towards Octavia and saw that she was talking about his hooves. “Oh, um, alright. Sorry about that.” He said as he put his hooves underneath the table. He sighed and laid his head on the table, completely bored. “Maybe this practice date wasn’t such a good idea after all.”

“Is it really that boring?” Octavia asked, her attitude changing and suddenly becoming slightly concerned.

“What?” He raised his head from the table, and realized what she had asked. “N-No! No! Um, I-I was just saying that, uh, I’m having a great time! Yeah…” He said as he raised his hooves high into the air. Octavia only raised her eyebrow at him.

“You don’t need to lie to me Fiery.”

With another sigh, Fiery lowered his hooves and placed his head on the table. “Sorry.” Still bored, Fiery looked out of the corner of his eyes to see another couple not too far from their table, both seeming to be enjoying each other’s company. “Must be nice, being able to enjoy being with each other.” He absentmindedly said out loud again.

“Something wrong about being with me?” Octavia asked him, somewhat irritated at the comment.

Fiery surprised her though, shaking his head on the table and speaking in the same bored voice. “Just thinking about my past, that’s all.”

“Your past?” Octavia asked, forgetting about the previous comment and becoming intrigued by his answer. Before she got an answer for that question though, they were both interrupted by the waiter who was ready to take their order.

“I must apologize-“ The waiter began. “Today has been rather hectic. How may I serve you two?” He asked with his best forced smile on.

“I’ll just have the special salad.” Octavia answered quickly, wanting the waiter to leave as soon as possible.

“I suppose I’ll do the same.” Fiery said with another sigh.

“Two special salads, very good. I’ll be back in a short bit to refill your drinks.” With that, the waiter turned around and walked away to serve other customers.

As the waiter walked away, Octavia turned back to Fiery. “You were saying something about your past?” She asked again.

Fiery looked up at Octavia, not moving his head up at all. “You interested or something?”

Octavia shrugged, trying to act as though it wasn’t really interesting. “Well, it’s something.”

Finally raising his head, Fiery replied. “On one condition.”

“Alright, what is it?”

“You have to tell me about that stallion guy you’re so upset about.”

Octavia raised an eyebrow. “Why should I do that?”

“Well, it’s only fair, right? I talk about my past, and you talk about yours.”

“And if I refuse?”

“You don’t get to know about my past.” He said a smug smile.

Rolling her eyes, Octavia huffed in annoyance. “Fine… But you need to start out with telling me about what you were thinking about. Also, I’ll only tell you about the bare minimum, okay?”

After thinking about it for a few seconds, Fiery nodded in agreement. “Deal.”

“So what about your past were you thinking about?” Octavia asked as she leaned her head on her hooves.

Fiery motioned his head in the direction of the couple. “I was thinking about the days of when I actually had a girlfriend.”

“And what were those days like?”

Fiery stayed silent for a few seconds, thinking about it. “… It was back in high school. The first three years I was so busy with doing homework and such that I could never get a girlfriend before, not that it really mattered though, not being popular and all. But luckily that all changed in the last year. I was able to get a part-time job to make a little bit of money before going off to college, and that’s when I met the girl that I would date for a few months.”

“Oh? How did you two exactly meet?” Octavia asked with interest.

“It was after work.” Fiery continued. “I was working in a grocery store as a stock boy, and one night, as I was getting off work, I noticed that she and her friends were pretty much loitering around the parking lot.”

“Parking lot?” Octavia said in confusion.

Fiery shook his head. “Forget about it, it’s not important, just a human thing. Anyways, I was making my way to the bus stop when I heard the girls get in their car and began to pull out. They nearly ended up hitting me, but I was able to move out of the way at the last second. I suppose I was lucky that happened though, as instead of speeding off, one of the girls got out of the car to check if I was okay. I recognized her as one of the girls from my math class, and she seemed to see me as the same. A few days later we began dating.”

Octavia frowned. “Well that wasn’t really romantic.”

Fiery raised an eyebrow. “Was it supposed to be? Besides, the entire relationship wasn’t romantic at all.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Before Fiery could answer, the waiter had come back with two salads on his back and placed them in front of the two, with a pitcher of water shortly afterwards. Before eating, Fiery felt compelled to give her an answer. “Even though we were dating, I really didn’t feel… chemistry between us you could say. I think she felt the same way. Really, our first date was at most a ‘sorry I almost ended up hitting you with a two ton piece of machinery which could’ve seriously injured you’ kind of date. It wasn’t long, maybe after fourth of fifth date, that I found out that she had been seeing another guy on the side, a jock no less.”

“Oh, I see…” Octavia said in a sympathizing tone, only to ask. “What’s a jock? Another human thing?”

“Err, yeah. Sort of like a guy who’s really into sports I guess. Anyways, at first I guess I was pretty relieved that she was cheating on me, because I had a itching in the back of my head telling me she was only using me to get what she wanted in terms of homework and such. I decided that wasn’t the case though, and wanted to forgive her because of the fact that my mom had never given my dad a second chance when she found out about him cheating on her.”

“Oh, um, I’m so sorry to hear about that happening to you Fiery.”

Fiery smiled. “It’s no problem Octavia. Anyways, I basically forgave her, and she agreed not to try to cheat on me again. Boy, was that the biggest lie I’ve heard.”

“She didn’t fulfill her promise?”

Fiery shook his head, finally putting in his first bite of the salad he had ignored up until now. After swallowing the chewed up food, he continued on. “I began to hear stories around school about her making out with the same jock guy from earlier after school and all, some of them about them even going further. At first I didn’t believe the stories, but the more I heard about them, the more I became paranoid. Finally saying ‘fuck it’, I went back by the stands by the football field and waited to see if it was really true or not.”

“And?”

“Oh, you can say she was cheating on me alright, dude had even gotten to home base with her.”

“… Home base?” Octavia asked, looking confused.

Again, Fiery shook his head. “Sorry, human saying, basically means he went all the way with her.” He told Octavia, who only continued to look at him with confusion. “… They were doing ‘it’?”

Finally understanding what he meant, Octavia began to blush up. “O-Oh…”

“Yeah, well, I’m glad that I didn’t confront them right there, because I mean, even if she was cheating on me, it’s not cool to interrupt somebody while they’re doing it, right? Anyways, I went home, upset on the one hand but somewhat relieved on the other knowing I wouldn’t have to deal with that bitch anymore. Next morning I caught her in the hallways between classes, and, well, we didn’t exactly end our relationship on the best of terms.”

“You yelled at her?”

“No, I punched her in the eye.”

Octavia gasped with shock. “You punched her in the eye?!” She yelled, gaining the attention of the entire restaurant that was sitting outside, along with some ponies that were passing by. She hadn’t really cared though, as she continued to focus on Fiery and his absurd answer. “How could you do such a thing to somepony?!”

With a sigh and a roll of his eyes, Fiery answered. “Look, first off, it was like three or four years ago by this point. Second, I was in a really bad mood that day because of the fact that the anger from before was building up in me and I needed some way to release it.”

“So? That’s still no excuse for punching somepony in the eye!”

“Listen, you want to hear how the story ends, or do you want to act like every other person I’ve told this story to and never hear the end of it?” He asked with an annoyed tone.

Octavia opened her mouth to complain some more about how he was treating this, but decided against it and laid her plot back down on her cushion. “Fine, so how did it end?”

“I called her a whore, walked away, and then after school was confronted by the jock. We ended up getting into a fight and we both ended up getting in-school suspension. Let me tell you though, it was greatest feeling ever to let all of my emotions flow through my fist that day… Man, those were the days…” Fiery ended with a smile.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

With a groan, Octavia put her elbows onto the table and began to rub her temples in annoyance. ‘I suppose you can’t blame him ‘Tavi. After all, you did ask what his love life was like.’ She looked back up at Fiery who had begun to happily eat his lunch. She began to do the same shortly afterwards, until…

“So-“ Fiery started in-between bites. “What was your love life back in school?”

Octavia, who had brought a fork full of spinach leaves with a slice of tangerine at the end up to her mouth, slowly placed the fork down so she could answer. She only did so though after letting out a small sigh. “I suppose I did agree to that, didn’t I?” Fiery only nodded as his cheeks were full of salad. “Well… you know how I said that nowadays that harems were basically mandatory until marriage because of the population problem? And that I was old-fashioned in love?” Again, Fiery nodded. Octavia put only one of her elbows on the table this time, having her head rest on her hoof as she began to reminisce about her past. “Alright then, so I don’t have to repeat that then… I guess it all started back in my last year in high school. I was studying here in Ponyville thanks to my parents sending me here and paying the cost of boarding in an apartment complex near the school, and that it was about mid-spring. I had just received a letter from the music and art school that I always wished to go to in Canterlot.”

“Wait a minute, I thought you said you went to college here?”

Octavia stopped her train of thought to look at Fiery to see him confused. “When I did I ever say that? Ponyville doesn’t even have a community college, so how I could even do that?”

“Back when we first met, you said your parents sent you here in search of your talent?” Fiery replied, thinking back to the first day they had met, and how they all sat around the dinner table getting to know one another.

“Yes, I did, and then I found my talent and thought I also had the talent to get in the Canterlot School of Music and Art.”

“Ah, okay. Carry on.”

Rolling her eyes, Octavia did carry on with her story. “Continuing on, I was really excited about going. I would count the days down until I would be off on my way to Canterlot and possibly making it big afterwards. The day finally came when I had to leave and I bid farewell to all of my friends, Vinyl crying like a small foal as the train left.”

Fiery chuckled a bit, not really imagining Vinyl as the type would cry like that. Vinyl on the other hoof, had been reading a magazine on the couch in the living room back home, when she suddenly had the urge to sneeze. After doing so, she spoke to herself. “Somepony is talking about me somewhere…” She shrugged then and continued to read her magazine.

“As I arrived in the huge city, I was fairly nervous. I was in a brand new place, not knowing anypony, and had relatively no clue how to get to the school. Granted, I did as much research about the place as I could, but the library here wasn’t the best at the time, and I couldn’t really get any references or maps of Canterlot that were up-to-date. You see, the school was fairly new and high-tech and-“

“And it wouldn’t be on any old maps, gotcha. So, what happened next?”

“Well, I began to ask around, feeling fairly safe that I could do so considering it was in the early morning and there were practically guard everywhere. Soon enough I was able to get a nice stallion fellow to point me in the direction of the school, wishing me the best of luck. As you can imagine, school sort of started off being extremely dull. As I said, I didn’t know anypony, and I was sort of the shy type when it came to meeting new ponies. Luckily, there were some very nice ponies who seemed to notice my shyness and help me break my habit.”

“Oh? And who were those ponies?” Fiery asked, although he really didn’t care. He knew that there would be practically no chance of him knowing who she would talk about.

“I believe you met one of them at the party the first day you came here. A minty-green pony by the name of Lyra?”

Fiery began to think back at the party, trying to imagine everything that had happened that night. “I think I recall meeting someone called that… Was there a bright blue unicorn there as well called, what was it? Colgate?”

Octavia nodded. “Yes, that’d be them. Even though we haven’t talked recently, Lyra and I were actually pretty close back in college. The other ponies are actually my co-workers now.”

“Really? Wow, that must be a hassle.”

Octavia raised an eyebrow. “Why do you say that?”

“Well, I’m just saying. Maybe you say something that upsets your friend then while you guys are hanging out, that would also end up affecting your workplace, wouldn’t it?”

“I suppose so. Sure Symphony and I have had our differences in the past. Sometimes when one stallion she liked ended up being attracted to me instead of her she would get upset at me, but never really to the point where we hated each other. Brass was also really kind towards me. In fact, we get so along with each other, we’re practically like sisters now. Concerto is clumsy sometimes, but he has a good heart.” Octavia then began to giggle some. “He also had the biggest crush on Brass for the longest time, the poor colt. I-I remember this one time, he thought he would ask her out on a date one night when they would practice together. As he got over to her place, she had accidentally left her apartment unlocked, and he ended up walking in on her while she was in the shower. She was so shocked, that she started to throw whatever she could at him, trying to drive him out as he tried to apologize for barging in.” At this point, Octavia had gone into a full-blown laughing fit remembering the story Brass had told her so long ago. Fiery had chuckled some as well.

After finally calming down enough, Octavia had been able to continue on. “T-Those two… I swear, sometimes I imagine that they were born into this world just so they could be together.”

“I assume they’re together now?”

Again, Octavia nodded. “Married actually. After two years of dating and after graduating college, Concerto proposed to her in the most romantic way he could, and she said yes without hesitation. Coltzy was so jealous at their love.” She said with another small giggle.

“Who?”

Stopping her giggling and still smiling, Octavia turned to Fiery. “Oh, forgive me. Fredric ‘Coltzart’ Horseshoepin. We just called him ‘Coltzy’ though. He and Harpo are the last two of our group; Coltzy plays the piano while Harpo plays the harp.”

‘Harpo… clever.’ “So why was ‘Coltzy’ so jealous?”

Rolling her eyes while remembering the memory, Octavia answered. “It was over some stupid bet between Coltzy and Concerto. Last I remember, Harpo told me something about how one night while they were out drinking, Concerto made some crazy bet with Coltzy on who would get married first, and the loser would have to pay up 500 bits. You see, Coltzy had also been dating somepony at the time, and even thought she was the one.”

“I’m assuming she wasn’t?” Fiery asked, finally finishing off his salad.

“Oh, she was, he just didn’t have the courage to ask her, that’s all.”

“Ah.”

“Anyways, as you can imagine, not only was Coltzy jealous that he not only lost the race in love, but was upset that he lost the bet, and paid up the full 500 bits.”

“I see… so when are we going to hear about the part of you and this stallion guy?” Fiery asked with impatience. He didn’t know why he was so impatient, but for some reason or another, he just wanted to know what made Octavia so mad each time he was mentioned. Perhaps it was because he truly wanted to know what happened to make Octavia upset so much? Nah, that couldn’t have been it.

With another sigh, Octavia gave Fiery a deadpan look. “I was getting to that Fiery.”

“Sorry.” He apologized quietly.

“His name was Ink Blot… He was an artist back during my first year and was somepony who shared one of my classes. He was handsome I suppose, but I wasn’t really looking for anypony special at the time. He seemed to think otherwise though, as he continued to try to get together with me.” She sighed once again. “An entire month of nonstop invites to go out from him. Finally, Brass and Symphony were able to convince me into going out for some coffee with him. I will admit, the date was enjoyable for the most part, as he hadn’t done anything too rude or anything to embarrass me.”

“A real ladies’ man, huh?” Fiery said, making a little smirk. Octavia glared at him in return, making Fiery lose his smile. “Sorry.”

“Continuing on, I decided that perhaps the relationship could work out, so we ended up going out for some time. Looking back on it now, I was such a fool, not noticing the signs.” She said quietly, looking away from Fiery.

“Signs? What signs?”

“He was never interested in me, or my music, or what I cared about. All he wanted was to get below my tail.” She answered bitterly. “I’ve never told Vinyl this, but… had she not come that weekend to come see me, I would probably still be with that jerk, believing his stupid lies.” Her tone was turning from normal to angry as she looked back at the years she spent in college. The glass she was holding in her hooves was beginning to crack under the pressure that Octavia was squeezing it in anger.

Fiery saw the cracking glass, and placed a hoof on hers, smiling. “Hey now, we don’t want to pay for more than just the lunch, right?”

Octavia came back to reality and saw the damage she had done to the glass, blushing in embarrassment. “O-Oh, I-I didn’t mean to, I just-“

“I know you didn’t mean to Octavia. Here, let’s stop for now, this is obviously hard for you and I don’t want you to do anything we would regret, okay?”

Normally, Octavia would get upset at a comment like this, but deep down, she knew Fiery only meant for the best. She nodded and let go of the glass. The waiter had come up with their check, not evening seeing the broken glass and letting them pay for their meals. The rest of the day they spent their time just wandering around town, helping Fiery getting to know the place, and ending the practice date by going back to the park where they sat by the park pond, enjoying the setting of the sun, sharing the warmth of their bodies as they leaned against one another on that cool spring night.

Over the next couple of days, Fiery had received a letter from one of Fluttershy’s friends, not really sure who it was considering it had no signature or return address, explaining the details of the date that was to come. When Friday finally did come, he read the letter one more time in the early morning to make sure he had everything down correctly.

“Okay, so, I’m suppose to go meet Fluttershy at a place known as ‘Sugarcube Corner’ at 1:30, and then we’ll end up eating lunch there, followed by going to the movie theater to go see the latest chick flick, with a walk at the park afterwards which is near her house.” He said out loud, then took a look at the two tickets that were in his hoof. “Well ain’t that just my fucking luck.”

“Oh come on Fifi, it won’t be that bad.” Vinyl said, trying to cheer him up. “Who knows, perhaps you two will even become close!”

Fiery glanced over to her only to give her an annoyed look. “You obviously don’t me too well. Chick flicks are most boring things in the world, and by the time I get out of there, I’ll be lucky if I haven’t wanted to blow my brains out with a shotgun.”

The two then heard a sigh from one of the two chairs from across the couch they were sitting on. The sigh belonged to their third roommate, who began to look at Fiery with an upset face. “Just go to the date Fiery, and stop complaining. It won’t be that bad.”

“Oh sure, you’re only saying that because you don’t have to go through the damn thing!”

Octavia groaned, placing the newspaper she was reading down on her lap and began to rub her eyes with hoof. “Fiery, please. We both know this date could be a way to make up to the Elements of Harmony, so you can’t screw it up.”

Fiery did his own groan of displeasure as the Elements of Harmony were mentioned. “Alright, alright, I get it… God, why did this have to happen to me?”

Meanwhile, in a city nearby called Cloudsdale, was a pair of lovers who had enjoyed each other’s company the night before. The mare, a yellow pegasus with a fire-like mane, and the stallion, a light grey with a navy blue mane. Both pegasi were well known in the Equestrian lands and even further, as they were both part of the most renowned air-stunt team on Terra.

The mare fluttered her eyes open as the bright sun beat down on them and began to stretch in the bed. Hoping out to go through her morning routine, the stallion began to groan as his well-deserved sleep was being disturbed by the bright star. As the mare went down the stairs of the lovely air-mansion that their entire team shared, she noticed a giant heap of letters sitting on the floor waiting to be opened.

“Oh boy, more fan-mail.” She said in an unenthused manner. She figuratively dove into the pile of letters and began to open them one by one. About ninety-five percent of them were the same, mostly fans begging to get an autograph from the team on some type of item. ‘I’ll leave those for the lower guys to deal with.’ The mare thought to herself, as she usually did when she received these type of requests.

As the mare was going through the pile, her ears perked up upon hearing the sounds of one of her teammates coming down the stairs. She turned around to see a pale, arctic blue mare with white mane, yawning. “Morning Echo.”

After the arctic blue mare stopped yawning, she replied. “Morning Captain Spitfire.”

“Please Echo, just Spitfire, or even Spits if you want.” Spitfire said while focusing her attention on another letter and opening it with a letter opener she held in her wing.

“More fan-mail?” Echo asked with an annoyed tone.

“Yep, better get cracking rookie.”

‘Great.’ “Yes Captain…” Echo replied with reluctance. As she sat down on the cloudy floor, she tried to make small-talk with her superior. “… Enjoy last night?” She asked casually.

Spitfire stopped what she was doing and look over to Echo with a smirk. “Were we really that loud?”

“I think the entire city could hear you two.”

Chuckling a bit, Spitfire went back to opening the letters. “Sorry about that, next time we do it I’ll try to be a little quieter.” She said, when one of the letters caught her eye, a regular. “Oh great, that Rainbow Dash filly again.” She said with a slight annoyance.

“Something wrong with her?” Echo asked.

“No, not really. I mean, I’ve seen her leadership abilities and how well she flies, it’s just… she sends so many damn letters asking if she can join! It gets a little irritating, you know?”

“Well, why hasn’t she?” Echo asked with curiosity. “I mean, you just said it yourself, didn’t you? That she has the leadership and the skill?”

“I only said I saw them, I never said they were of quality to join us.” Spitfire corrected, but began to think about it. “But… I suppose she does have the skills to join, heck, probably has the raw skills to beat me when it comes racing and even showing off.”

“Beat you?! Okay, now I don’t believe you.” Echo said with a smirk.

Rolling her eyes, Spitfire continued. “Well, we do have the next three days off to rest up… You think our fan would appreciate a little visit from her favorite hero?” She asked smugly.

“Wait, you’re seriously considering trying her out? Do we even have a spot open for the team?”

“Eh, I don’t think Mr. Fancypants would mind paying a little extra if she’s really worth it, right?” Echo only shrugged at the comment. “Anyways, she’s never going to stop asking unless we either tell her yes or no, and I don’t think she’ll take no as an answer.”

“I guess… Hey, maybe while you’re down wherever you’re going, you can try to find somepony new to create some intro music for us.”

“Somepony new? What happened to Sticks?” Spitfire asked with concern.

With a sigh, Echo replied. “You want the good news or the bad news first?”

“I guess the good…”

“Alright, the good news is he finally kicked his drug addiction.”

“After hearing that I’m almost afraid to hear the bad news.” Spitfire said.

“Overdose.” Echo simply said, making Spitfire wince.

“Damn, He was a good guy too. I’ll definitely miss him, that’s for sure.” Spitfire said while she looked at the fluffy cloud ground she was standing on, before looking back up at Echo. “How did you hear?”

“Owner Fancypants sent out a memo about it. I take it you never saw it then?” Spitfire shook her head. “Well, now he’s on the lookout for somepony new, and even wants us to help out.”

“I see. Well then, guess I have two missions to go on today.”

“Yep.”

Getting up from the floor, Spitfire began to make her way back to the room that she shared with her lover, when she looked back at Echo. “By the way, I want all those fan-mails opened and autographed by the time I get back tonight.” She said with a smirk, then began to ascend the stairs once more.

“Wait, what?!”