A Search For Something More

Chapter 28: Valentine's Day

It has been a couple of weeks since Sunset Shimmer, Caramel, Soarin, Sonata, and the Rainbooms helped me out of my depressed state, and life's been a little better since then. School work has been less of a hassle, I've started to hang out with Caramel and Soarin a little more often, and the three of us have been enjoying hanging out with the Rainbooms and Sonata, which has been very pleasant. Caramel and Soarin couldn't be happier spending time with Rainbow Dash and Applejack during lunch, and I've grown to be more comfortable around Rarity and Sunset Shimmer. Rarity can be hard to talk to sometimes since there's not a lot of things she likes to talk about that isn't fashion or gossip, but as long as I pay attention to what she's saying to some extent, it doesn't become an issue. Fluttershy doesn't say much, but it's always a pleasure in some small way to get a brief hi or bye from a sweet and innocent girl like her. Usually, that's all we'll get from her unless someone brings up something about animals, and then suddenly she'll talk so much about it that I'd almost mistake her for Pinkie Pie. Sonata couldn't be happier just to be with real friends, and I think I can speak for everyone when I say that it warms our hearts to see her so gleeful. It's no secret, however, that she's especially fond of me. Not that she thinks of me in any romantic way, but it's clear to everyone that she treasures her friendship with me the most for "saving her life" as she tends to put it.

As for Sunset Shimmer, we're starting to become better friends. Sometimes we have to work on it whenever I discover something that was a lie from last spring, (how dare she thinks that the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games are not canon!), but we are adjusting to forgive and forget which we're starting to do regularly. Apart from that, she tends to check on me the most when it comes to how I'm doing with Octavia, which I appreciate.

And how am I doing about that right now? Well...there are good days and bad days. As much as I am out of my depression over the breakup, there are times where my heart still aches for Octavia. The pain isn't as bad as it was before, but it's still depressing how she moved on so quickly. Regardless, I'm learning to let her go more and more bit by bit, and I'm feeling all the better for it. At times I do miss the others at the E.M.R. like Derpy, Doc, and even Lyra and Bon Bon to an extent. Vinyl, on the other hand, has continued to act cold towards me whenever we are crossing paths, but luckily she seems to have stopped going any further than giving me a deathly glare through her shades.

So life hasn't been great, but I feel content all things considered.

Today is Valentine's Day - or as most students like to call it, Single Awareness Day. This has always been one of my favorite holidays because being the hopeless romantic that I am- or so Soarin and Sunset Shimmer likes to call me. I like how this specific day is about celebrating love, even though I have no one special to celebrate it with. Usually, I get some party pizzas and ice cream for dinner and watch some romantic episodes from some shows I watch or some romantic film on my laptop. It's a lonely way to celebrate the holiday, I know. Still, I've been content with it for so many years in Applelosa, especially after my classes reached that age where we don't give Valentine's Day cards to all of our classmates anymore. Man, I miss those days.

This year is going to be a little trying, though. Last Valentine's Day, I had just recently moved to Canterlot and started going to CHS, and it was about a week before Sunset Shimmer started to trick me into thinking she had a thing for me. I was more alone than usual since I was a new student, yet as is a tradition for me, I celebrate the day hoping that next year I will finally celebrate the holiday with someone special. Since then, I did find someone that I loved and who loved me back, but it ended before this day came, so it's going to be difficult treating the holiday like usual when I finally found a love so precious only to have lost it.

My mother drops me off at school as usual, and so I walk inside the building to meet Caramel and Soarin for our first class. The halls are covered with Valentine's Day decorations, and already, some girls are carrying boxes of chocolates or flowers or teddy bears of different sizes and colors that have been given to them by boyfriends or admirers. Sometimes I'll pass by a couple who are making out or making googly eyes at each other, which makes me feel sad thinking of the times when I did things like that with Octavia.