Satin sat alone in their big old house.
Her father was giving a concert in Manehatten and would not be back until the end of the week, whereas her mother was out practicing in canterlots music academy. Satin had the feeling that her mother didn't like being alone with her deaf daughter. Both of her parents were famous musicians, and Satin knew that they must have been overjoyed as the hospital seer told them their daughters talent would be playing the harp. But when Satin was three years old, a tragic accident had happened. After a loud explosion and weird lights in the sky, there had been magical turbulences all over Canterlot that caused many ponies to lose the connection to their talents, making the destined musician Satin deaf. And even though Celestia had been able to heal most of the ponies, nothing could be done about Satin. The spell had worked slightly different on the young pony, the princess had told her parents, and could not be removed without severely damaging the complex magic that was responsible for the Cutie Mark.
So Satin had been left as she was.
Her father had gotten over it quickly and supported her where he could, sending her to the best school Canterlot had to offer for disabled ponies, and encouraging her to live her life as normal as possible. He had teached her writing, and reading, and had never been too busy to help her.
Her mother, on the other hand, had been devastated after the accident, and until her husband had talked sense into her, her relation to her daughter had grown colder and colder. But even though she treated her daughter with love after that, Satin still felt some distance between them that would not fade as much as she tried. She would clean the house and draw her pictures and get good grades, and her mother would smile, but the smile would sometimes not reach her eyes.
An hour had passed since her mother left the house, and Satin was bored. Her book did not really thrill her, and since she had no gift at lip-reading, television was no real alternative. Her eyes wandered around the living room and rested on the harp her parents had bought some time after her birth. Even though it stood there since ages, noone had ever used it.
She trotted through the room and sat down next to it.
It was a beautiful instrument, elegant and curvy. The strings were like those on the cello of her mother, just more. She touched one of it, and felt the vibration it made. But it was different from the vibrations the cello made. Not just that it was softer... It also touched something inside her. She plucked more, and the feeling intensified. She sensed now
something else inside her ear, and suddenly she felt like she could tell the vibrations apart, far better than before, and it was a different sensation than before, but so pleasant, this feel made by her ears... And she plucked more strings, and searched for the most beautiful combination, ecstatic from this wonderful new feel.
As Octavia entered her house, she heard music, and was confused. Her daughter could not hear it, so why would she put it on, Octavia doubted that she even knew how to use a CD player. And it was harp music, of all the instruments, how she hated it ever since that day. Did she even own a harp CD? She was quite sure she had thrown them all away.
But what a wonderful music, no melody she had ever heard, following none of the classic harmonys, but instead sounding like it came from the bottom of the heart. She followed the tone all the way to the living room, to be rewarded with a sight she thought she would never see in her life. Her eyes filled with tears as she saw her wonderful daughter, playing the harp like she had wished for all this years.
'Satin...' she called with a hoarse voice.
Satin had been lost in her play for hours, plucking the strings and resting her mind. But suddenly, a new sound found its way through her playing, a familiar sound, waking memories from long ago.
Satin turned around.
For a while, they just stood there, looking at each other. Finally, Octavia found words. "You played" she said. Satin cocked her head to the site and looked at her curiously. Suddenly Octavia remembered, ashamed of herself, that her child was deaf and likely didn't understand her (How could she have forgotten that? She must have been thrown completely off track by this sight), and she took a piece of paper and one of the pens that lay around in the whole house. She repeated her words on paper and gave it her daughter.
Satin nodded, and then they stared at each other for another uncertain time.
Then Octavia took the piece of paper, turned it around and wrote: "Can you play again".
Satin felt uneasy. What if she couldn't do it anymore? But as she touched the strings again, that feeling vanished, and plucking the strings was like the most natural thing for her. "Maybe that's what having a talent feels like", she thought, and looked briefly at her flank that had been plain for all this time.
Just that there was a symbol now. She dropped her hooves in shock, creating a dissonance, and the look of bliss on her mother's face suddenly changed for a look of worry. Satin made some happy noises and pointed at her flank, to be rewarded with a broad smile from her mother, matching her own.
Joyful, Satin continued her play until long after Luna had raised the Moon, and Octavia listened without tiring to what she would always cherish as the most beautiful melody of the world.
For that night, they were the happiest ponies in the world.
