“Is that her?” Lyra asked, peeking through the candy shop window. I checked and nodded. There was the mare with the blue and pink mane helping a filly with choosing candy.

“Yes, that’s Bon Bon,” I nodded. I walked into the candy shop and tried not to wrinkle my nose at the strong smell of sweets. Bon Bon looked up at me, clearly confused as to why I was there. Even as a filly I had never been one for candy.

“Hello, Bon Bon,” I said cheerfully. “How are you today?”

“I’m doing fine. What about you?”

“I’m going just fine, thank you.” There was a bell behind me and Lyra stepped up behind me. “This is my new friend, Lyra.” I stepped back and let Lyra have the floor. The mint unicorn looked towards the ground shyly.

“Hello,” Bon Bon said kindly, sensing Lyra’s nervousness. I left the two to…whatever it is they were going to do and trotted off to find the candy Vinyl had requested. Why she wanted hard candy was beyond me. I preferred sugar cubes and occasionally a nice toffee. Much softer on the teeth, and they didn’t make a horrid amount of noise.

I found the hard candy easily. It was the only section in the shop that hadn’t been ruined by fillies. There was even a sale going on. One bag of hard candy was now only 5 bits. I selected a bag of electric blue candies, thinking that it would at least match Vinyl’s mane, and returned to the counter. Lyra was smiling widely and Bon Bon looked pleased.

“Just this,” I said, laying the bag of bits on the counter. Bon Bon counted out five and returned the bag, along with the candy.

“I never took you for the hard-candy type, Octavia.” She said as I stuck the candy in my saddle bag.

“It’s for a friend,” I explained, not wanting to get into the whole issue.

“A coltfriend?” Bon Bon teased. I shook my head, wrinkling my nose. I had never had a coltfriend, and I was certainly not going to get one here. Stallions were just large and messy. I didn’t want to waste my time with one, and Bon Bon was supposed to know that.

“You need to get one soon, Octavia.” Lyra said through a mouthful of what appeared to be sugar. “There are a lot of stallions at the Academy that you might like. There’s Baritone, Frederic Horseshoepin, Meadow Song, Jazz…”

“Lyra, it’s very sweet of you to name all the eligible stallions, but I’m not all that into dating.” I cut her off kindly. I had met Frederic when I was registering, and he had seemed nice, but I would prefer to have him as a good friend, not a coltfriend.

“Octavia, you’ve never had a coltfriend,” It was not a question. Bon Bon knew, without asking, that I had never been in a relationship with anypony. Lyra gasped loudly when I nodded my head.

“I don’t see anything wrong with that,” I protested.

“Most mares have had at least one coltfriend, even if it wasn’t anything serious,” Lyra said.

“Did you ever think…and don’t take this the wrong way, Octavia, but maybe you haven’t had a coltfriend because you just don’t like stallions?” Bon Bon ventured. I was ready to protest, but there was nothing I could say. It was true that I found stallions smelly and messy, but mares could be like that too. Take Vinyl Scratch for example. She was very messy.

“Octavia, it’s not something bad.” Lyra said quickly. “It just means you would prefer mares. Equestria has been very open-minded about coltcuddlers and fillyfoolers ever since Celestia became the ruler.”

“I’m aware,” I didn’t have much to say to anypony. I was too busy trying to work out if I liked mares or stallions.

“Octavia, are you alright?” Bon Bon asked. I nodded slowly.

“I need to go now. Lyra, you’re welcome to stay with Bon Bon, but I need to get candy her Vinyl…I mean, Vinyl her candy. See you back at campus,” I walked away as dignified as I could. I was in Canterlot, after all, and I couldn’t let anypony even begin to think that I might be suffering an internal debate. Over my sexuality no less!

“Watch it—oh, hey, Octavia.” I shook my head to see Bee Bop, standing beside a large brown Pegasus stallion with a blonde mane and tail.

“Hello, Bee,” I put on a false air of relaxation. “Who’s this?” I asked, though I figured I knew who it was.

“This is my new coltfriend,” Bee Bop smiled widely. “His name is Dollar, but everypony calls him Money Shot.” The stallion nodded his head toward me respectively and I caught a glimpse of his cutie mark; a backwards ‘S’ with two lines through it.

“Why’d we stop?” A young female voice asked. I peered around Money Shot and saw a small filly with a large camera around her neck. She was light brown with a blonde mane and tail. She looked like a miniature, earth pony version of Money Shot.

“Yooess Dee,” Bee explained when she saw where I was looking. “His half-sister, you see, his parents are Pegasus ponies, and his mom left his dad after she had him, and she got with an earth pony and had Yooess!”

“Fascinating,” I avoided rolling my eyes. “I must get going, you see, I promised I would deliver something to a friend and I’m running late.” Before I could say a formal goodbye, I was trotting at a brisk pace back towards the Academy. What was this place doing to my Canterlot manners? Ever since arriving, I had been so much ruder than usual.

“I was about to come find you!” Vinyl’s voice said from across the street. I turned my head and stepped back onto the sidewalk. A taxi puller glared at me for wasting his time before galloping off as fast as he could.

“I didn’t know which kind you liked,” I said as she approached. I managed to get the candy out of my saddle bag and Vinyl took it with her magic. “I just got the really blue ones to match your mane.”

“These are my favorite, thanks, Octy,”

“I told you not to call me that,” I said, but I didn’t really care anymore. Nopony had ever bothered to give me a nickname before.

“Do you wanna go back, or should we hang around Canterlot?” Vinyl asked, popping three pieces of the candy into her mouth. I thought for a moment. Going back would mean being in a dorm, possibly getting another smoothie, and being forced to think.

“I think we should walk around for a while. We could go out for lunch, do some shopping, go to the music store…”

“Sounds like a date!” Vinyl said. She nodded before she realized how it had sounded. “I meant…not a date, but…”

“I understand, Vinyl,” I laughed. “Our not-a-date date,”

“Yeah, that!” Vinyl said loudly. “Awesome! Now, where are we going for lunch?”