Chapters I woke up, sweating. Moonlight poured through my window, but I didn't need the absence of the Sun to know that it was still dark outside. As every night for the last few years, I woke up from a nightmare, about one hour from sunrise. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep again, getting up and going to the kitchen seemed the best thing to do. Hungry, I opened the cupboard, but failed to see any type of food. All I had remaining was a bag of flour, but even I was not as desperate to try and eat pure flour. Shopping had somehow dropped itself from my to-do list yesterday, and I wondered what had kept me busy. No answer sprang to mind, for what does a pony without a job do, apart from caring for herself and herself alone. Yet, I had even failed that aspect of my life. I shrugged. "Well, no breakfast for me today." I said to myself. Clearly my stomach did not agree with this statement and started to growl loudly. "Oh shut up you!" I grumbled. I went back upstairs to get my backpack to check what kind of money I still had. 3 bits. "Huh, well this'll be fun, with this I can buy some eggs some milk and maybe an apple or two. I guess it's apple pancakes for the remainder of the week. I'll graze a bit here and there, and I think we can make it till next month." Talking to myself had become natural, even though I knew other ponies would consider me crazy for doing it.
So, that was going to be it, huh? One more month with money and then having to start begging. I didn't want to, but there was nothing that could have been done, being a unicorn without talent, who had tried many a job, if not all of them, but not a single one could keep my interest longer than a week. Hence why I never got paid more than a couple of bits. Some ponies had even given me more than I had earned, just to get rid of me. "Whatever, I'll find something." Knowing I wasn't going to. Getting to the point where little foals were a more welcome help in companies or shops than me was not a comforting thought. Trying to pull my mind off things, I grabbed a towel and went outside down to the river. Even though the crystal clear water was cold, it woke me up and, best of all, it was free. I dried myself after, now noticing the moon was descending. So I made my way to the town square and sat down. I had nothing else to do anyway. Not having a job did have its advantages, you could say, as long as I could remember to take care of myself once in a while.
Waiting for the sun to rise, I realised that coming here was more a force of habit than anything else. Ever since the first time my sleep had abandoned me, I came here to watch the sunrise, hoping to see the spectacle I once thought was so great. Back then, my gramps explained to me that all of this was the work of a single alicorn, Celestia. As if she had heard his words, the sun first peeked over the horizon with its rays of lights going in every direction you could imagine. I looked around to see the darkness of the shadows creep away from over house, over the rooftops, until the darkness was nowhere to be seen anymore. Now I realised that it was just the sun setting, that there could be no shadow where there was light, that everything that I had seen back then, had been just an illusion of sorts. And so, the sun rose to the sky and apart from the fact that it was a massive ball of fire and light, suddenly floating in the sky, it never had been as special as that one time, so long ago, when my grandparents had shared it with me. "Huh, another waste of time" I yawned. Not wanting to waste more of my not so precious time, I got back on my hooves and returned home, preparing for another day of nothing, as had been the case for the last 2 years. I came home, went to lie on my bed, put on a record and just laid there. Music. Every symphony, every harmony was different. Every genre had its rules and emotions, yet every one of them could bring out the best in me. Even if there were over a million songs, every one would be different. Every one was beautiful in its own way. It could be cheerful, happy music that made me happy, but even dark, sad music sometimes could. Sometimes, I even would get up from bed and start dancing. Music could forget my sorrows. If it could make me forget all the things I'd been through, for a fraction of a second, it was worth it. For that very fraction of a second made me feel I had a life worth living for.
Even though I'd lost my talent at being a DJ, I still enjoyed listening to music. Being able to improve music, though, that was my real passion. A couple of years ago, you could put on a record and I would write down what could, and should, be changed in that very song. And when I played that new version at performances, the music sounded as it should have in the first place. People would be carried by its melody, be moved by its words. They would stop where it stopped, only to start the cycle again when it continued or even when the next song played. But I needed to give up on that aspect. I just couldn't anymore. The events that had transpired two years ago had made me lose all faith in music. I, myself knew that it was just a trauma, but even if I copied what I used to do, I just couldn't change anything to the music, for it might drag me in as it had done that one day. The music as it was, would carry and comfort me in its melody, and everything was perfect. I didn't dare to change anything to it, because I could not have When ponies found out I couldn't DJ any better than any given pony, I soon stopped getting requests to play at parties, because I was famous, and therefore expensive, and so, I was forced to do other jobs, which I could not handle.
Suddenly, my reminiscing stopped with a loud growl from my stomach. Looking outside, the sun had risen completely. I stopped the record from playing, took my backpack and went to the store. I bought a bread, some eggs, some milk and a couple of apples with the last of my bits. For whatever reason, I decided to take a walk around town. There wasn't much to see, just an average day, as all the past days had been. There were, however, not many ponies on the streets. "Huh, that's odd, did I miss a forecast of bad weather or something?" I heard myself ask. It wouldn't have surprised me if I had. I lived from day to day, and tomorrow didn't really interest me, because I knew it was going to be more of the same old, same old. I quickly turned back home, not wanted to be caught in the rain, because even though it was sunny now, weather could change rapidly in Equestria. I got home, checked my mailbox -empty of course- And opened my door.
"SURPRISE!"
At first, I was startled. Then it came to me, it was my twentieth birthday. Not caring, I put my groceries in the cupboard, went up to the turntable, shut it off and yelled "Party's over" Without even waiting for a response, I went upstairs to my room. The guests would leave soon enough, because they knew it wasn't going to be a good party if the host didn't participate. As I opened the door to my bedroom, Pinkie Pie came charging at me "No, no, no, no, no, not this time. You have no idea how much I had to plan for this day, let aside all the cakes I baked. Now, you're going back downstairs, you're going to turn on that turntable and you are going to have fun, understand?!" She looked desperate, furious, hopeful, and serious all at the same time. A mix only Pinkie Pie could accomplish.
"What are you still doing here?" I asked her, I looked around and saw that every other pony had left. "Just go away, leave me alone."
I took a deep breath, went downstairs and looked through one of the windows. Pinkie was nowhere to be seen. "Why did I do that? Why did I want to be alone? I don't want to be alone." I had lost my appetite. I went back upstairs, closed my door, and put on a record. This time the music could not carry me in its melody. I looked at my bedside table. The picture of my parents, the only picture I had of them, was looking me straight in the eye. "I'm sorry" I whispered. Tears were flowing in my eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" I kept stammering those words. By now, the tears were accompanied by sobbing and yelling. "I'm sorry ok!? Don't make me go through this any more, Please don't. Please. I'm sorry."
I woke up, thirsty. I went to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. It was dark, but I knew my way around the house. I went downstairs and heard gran and gramps talking.
I woke up. The last remnants of the sunlight were pouring through my window. I had a look at my pillow only to see that it was no longer there. Only a few shreds remained. Ugh, I hated that dream, yet every time it seemed to creep up on me. For some reason, I couldn't control my magic when I was in that dream, it had cost me hundreds of pillows, a couple of sheets, and even one time, my entire bed. It gave me the shivers. It really wasn't necessary to dream the events that happened that night, for it was engraved in my mind, the images kept flashing through my brain, every minute of every day that I lived. But it was only a few years later that I found out how they had actually died. My mother died giving birth to me, my father went insane from the loss and later killed himself. I had a look at the picture on the bedside table. They looked so happy. They were so happy, and I destroyed them. I killed my mother and my father, killed the two people that would care about me the most. I killed them.
I had tried to sleep after that fiasco, but sleep eluded me. So I decided to turn on some music and tried to relax. It didn't help. Every time I started drifting away, The image of Pinkie lying on the floor below me flashed through my mind. Every time it struck me with a pang of guilt. I wouldn't have been surprised if I never slept again. Not that I slept much anyway. Yup, this was going to be one of those nightmares that would keep haunting me for the rest of my life. I sighed, now wanting to get away from this all, from everything. Then I remembered that I was completely broke. I was going to be stuck here, not even going to be able to fix that railing which would remind me of that image every time I went up or down the stairs. My stomach growled, reminding me that I hadn't eaten at all today. I walked to the kitchen, but I really didn't want to put in the effort to make anything, so I just had a slice of dry bread. I heard the clock ding 9 times. I still had some time before I normally went to sleep so I went outside, to the river, to take a cold bath, hoping that it at least would relieve some of the stress.
When I arrived at the river, everything seemed pointless. I walked over to the edge, and saw my reflection staring back at me with a bruise on its forehead. I rubbed it, to test whether it hurt or not. It stung. "I must have hit Pinkie real hard..." Again, a pang of guilt struck me as if it were a thunderbolt, and the image of Pinkie flashed in front of my eyes again. I sat down with a deep sigh, right on the riverside, my hooves in the cold water. Suddenly, even the thought of a swim didn't appeal to me anymore. I didn't know what to do right now, or even in the future. I laid down on my back, my head in the grass. Luna's moon looked down on me, as well as the yellow stars in the otherwise fully black night.
When I woke up, I was outside. It was a beautiful day. A day I hadn't seen in a long time. And for the first time in years, I was happy. Not incredibly happy, but happy. I walked through the streets, greeting every pony I saw. It felt good being so relieved. I walked past the record store and heard a whisper. I immediately knew what it was. It was the whisper of music. It felt so warm, I had to go inside. "Hey Vinyl, feeling the music again? By the way, I heard you had a great gig at the Gala", the shopkeeper said. I nodded and said "Just gonna look around a bit."
Halfway home, I smelled something, a light scent of smoke. It was going to be cold tonight, So ponies were probably heating up their stove. I ran up the hill looking over my home, and I froze. My house was on fire. I stood there for what I thought was an eternity, scared enough to run away, but brave enough to go and help. Coming back to my senses, I ran as fast as I could, but when I got close to the driveway, the house, my home, collapsed. I looked everywhere around the house, yelled at the top of my lungs for my gramps and gran, but they weren't there. All I found were two old pictures, one of my parents and one of my grandparents. When the fire brigade arrived, they managed to put out the fire quickly, but it was all too late. Everything I had, Everything I knew, was lost. They told me my grandparents were most likely too old to get out of a fire of that size on their own. Then I knew, if I was there, they would have made it out. But I wasn't. Because I was in some stupid record store, they died. Because of music, they died. I stood up, ran to the town, up to the record store, smashed in the window and destroyed all the records.
"Quite the violent dream" I heard a voice whisper in my ear. I jumped and looked to see Princess Luna standing right behind me.
"Please, titles mean nothing in a place like this. As for how I got here, I rule Equestria by night, and therefore take care of it's ponies. Because most ponies are asleep at night, and therefore I cannot take care of them as effectively, I have the ability to enter one's dream."
"Why wait so long before coming to me then? I mean it has been a couple of years since you were released from Nightmare Moon?" I asked, getting annoyed.
"Even though titles do not matter, I would respect some common courtesy. I am still your princess, even though we are in your dream. As for your question" she continued, seemingly ignoring my apologies, "Even though I can enter every ponies dream whenever I want to, would you not consider it rude for me to transgress on something as private as one's dreams, without them inviting me first?"
"I never asked you" I countered. "I don't mean you're not welcome, I mean..." I stopped. What do I want? I mean this is my mind, which is kinda private, and I wish no pony saw this...
"Whatever secrets you have will be safe with me." I gave her a look of doubt. "Yes, I can read minds, at least in conversations through the dream world. As for your invitation..."
She brought up a sphere, showing me looking at the moon that night. "How did you survive 1000 years on your own? I'm alone for 2 years and I have no more feelings, I'm nothing more than an empty shell, only destroying other ponies' lives as I'm destroying my own."
"I assumed you had invited me."
It's a clearly an excuse, and a bad one at that, but I suppose she is the princess, and if she wants to visit my dreams, I can't really do anything about it. I looked up at her to see her frowning.
She waved it away, clearly teasing me. "Let's get to business then, shall we?"
"Uhm, business?" I didn't quite know what to expect, this being my first time in... Where were we anyway? Where my dream was playing not a few minutes ago, now was... nothing. A black void, going as far as the eye could see, in every direction possible. I turned around looking for a way out, but all I could see was nothing.
"This is your mind. I think I have never seen such an empty place before." She was talking in her teasing, playful voice. "Also, it's been the first time that I've actually seen it empty here, usually, this place is crowded with horrible memories."
"Wait, I thought you said that you didn't intrude on ponies' dreams unless they invited you. How have you been here before?"
"Did I really say that?" It made me smile, I guess even she couldn't resist peeking into ponies' minds. The thought made me blush.
"Now, you want to get rid of those nightmares right? Well then, have a seat." Suddenly two seats and a table appeared out of nowhere, they just popped into my mind. "Would you like something to drink?" I just stood there, dumbfounded. "Coffee it is then, because I don't think you are that sophisticated that you would drink tea" Luna said with a smile. "And let's do something about this grim background" And sure enough, a kettle and two cups appeared out of nowhere. The black everywhere had made place for the garden at Canterlot Castle. The strange thing was that it felt like all of this had always been there, and nothing was conjured at all.
"Oh right" I sat down in front of the princess, and sipped from my cup.
"How is the coffee?"
It was excellent, not too strong, not too weak, yet a very powerful taste. Just the way I liked it. "Perfect. I had no idea you could conjure up coffee that great, I always thought conjured food was the worst."
Luna chuckled. "I didn't conjure it." I was confused. Luna continued "Conjuration is the skill of magic that converts magical energy into matter. Usually it takes too much energy to make something out of pure magic, so the course of action is to dismantle a magical item into magical energy, then using that same magical energy to make the item you want. The more details, the more magical energy required. Even for an alicorn as powerful as me, conjuring all these items would have been too much."
"How did all those things appear then, if they are not conjured?"
Luna took a sip of her cup. "It's the power of imagination." I gave her a sceptical look.
I still did not quite believe her, so I quickly thought of a cake, covered in whipped cream. Nothing happened. I sighed.
"You... Hahahaha... You need to specify the... location where the cake appears. Else it will just pop somewhere in your mind." She was panting, trying her best to catch her breath. I was not going to let her off that easy.
"And of course, I had to take a cake with whipped cream!" I heard the laughing well up again from under the table. I waited for her to climb back onto her chair. When she looked at me again, tears in her eyes from all the laughter, I licked my face. "Hmmmmm, it's still warm." This made her fall off her chair again. "S-S-Stop, you're killing me. Hahahaha!"
"This alone will not be enough to help you with your nightmares. The second thing you have to learn is how to step back from a nightmare. All you have to do to step back is to remember that you are in a dream. This is not as easy as it sounds, since all nightmares start happy and fun, and they start the same way aswell. But only in the happy part you can step back. Once you get to the bad parts, the mind is lulled into believing the dream is real aswell and you can't step back into it, unless you are aided by somepony. Do you understand?"
I woke up, I was outside. It was a beautiful day. A day I hadn't seen in a long time. And for the first time in years, I was happy. Not incredibly happy, but happy. I walked through the streets, greeting every pony I saw. It felt good being so relieved. I walked past the record store and heard a whisper. I immediately knew what it was. It was the whisper of music. It felt so warm, I had to go inside...
I was pulled out. "That was too far. Try again and remember."
I woke up, I was outside. It was a beautiful day. A day I hadn't seen in a long time. And for the first time in years, I was happy. Not incredibly happy, but happy. I walked through the streets, greeting every pony I saw. It felt good being so relieved.
"About five minutes. The mind works in mysterious ways" Luna said smiling, clearly seeing the confused look on my face, mouth agape.
"So, what do I do after I step back from the nightmares?"
"You imagine!" I looked at her, confused. "Do I have to do everything for you? Fine." She cleared everything and yelled "Music!"
Suddenly the entire, well, mind, was transformed into one big party. I was behind the turntables, playing my favourite music. Everypony was cheering, dancing, having fun. When I looked around to see Luna, she was gone.
I woke up with the sun shining on my face. It looked like it was going to be a fine day... "Wait. Sun? What time is it?" I quickly had a gander at the clock and saw that it was nine o'clock in the morning. I had actually slept till 9. It put a huge smile on my face. My stomach gave a small growl. Clearly not even it was used to sleeping till 9. By the time I'd arrived at the kitchen, the growl had turned into a thundering roar. "Woah there, easy, fellow. Sheesh, thank heavens I did my groceries yesterday." I took out the milk, eggs and flour and started mixing them. Whistling a tune, I started making my pancakes. I took out the apples and started cutting them up into slices. I loved eating apples with my pancakes, even though ponies always had a puzzled look in their eyes when they saw me eating those two together. It didn't matter. They didn't know what they were missing.
I looked at the apple slices on the table "You know, I always wondered how..." I looked around "Ah, why not?" I cut up the apple in even smaller pieces and put them in the frying pan. I took another frying pan out of my cupboard, washed it, and poured the pancake dough into that one. It had been a while since I used two frying pans at the same time. I just used the same frying pan all the time. Thinking about it, ever since I discovered the apple-pancake combination, I had made nothing else. That kinda bothered me. But then the smell of sweet apples filled the room. Now that the apples were heating up, they were starting to spread their divine aroma. I quickly took a spoon and took a tiny piece of apple. It was an explosion for my taste buds. It tasted ten times better than the regular apples, but not only that. Now the crunchy, hard part of the apple was gone too, and in it's place had come a flowing, soft sweetness that suited the pancakes so much better. How had no one come up with such a simple idea? The combination of the two was superb. "I gotta remember this" I mused after finishing my breakfast. I sat back, rubbing my belly with a glee sense of fulfilment. Looking at the window, I saw that the day was as clear as it could be, not a cloud in sight. Feeing great, I decided to go for a little walk around town.
Closing the door behind me, I took a deep breath of fresh air. How simple things like feeling the sun's warmth on your face, having a good breakfast and breathing the fresh air of Ponyville could make your day. I had a walk around, wanting to greet all the ponies, wanting to show that I had a good side too, which they hadn't seen too much of. Except everypony seemed to ignore me, some were even avoiding me, I was sure. This kinda brought me down, but it still was a wonderful day, and I was not going to things like that bring me down. I passed Sugarcube Corner and thought of Pinkie. "I really should check up on her and apologize. I hope I didn't hurt her too bad." As I approached the door, I saw a note hanging.
Closed
Nothing more, nothing less. Sugarcube Corner was never closed during the day. Never. "Did I do this?" I looked around. Ponies were staring at me and once I saw them, they turned their head and went their way. If I wasn't already in the dumps, I was now. I could take being ignored or even avoided. Ponies have been doing it since I came here. But the look in their eyes saying that I was the cause of everything, it was too much. I made my way to home. In the distance I heard somepony mutter "That filly is going to destroy us all someday" I started running, tears now flowing freely over my cheeks. When I got home, I quickly shut the door behind me, crashed into my couch and started crying. "I'm such a stupid filly, why did I do all of that? Why am I destroying everypony?" I lied there for a couple of minutes, crying, until the tears wouldn't flow anymore.
"There, there, everything's going to be fine" I heard a soft voice whisper. Fluttershy's. She laid a hoof on my back, and just kept whispering "There, there" It actually felt really comforting, and after a minute I went to sit on the couch, still sobbing a bit, but feeling better overall. "Thanks Fluttershy, that really helped." When I tried to look her in the face, she shied away, saying "I'm sorry. I uhm.... I-I wanted to talk to you, and the door was open, so I went in but you weren't there, so I wanted to leave again, but then you ran straight..."
"It's ok, I always leave my door open. I shouldn't, but I do. So don't worry about it. What did you want to talk about?"
"I got it!" I shouted while jumping from the bench with such intensity that I knocked over the table. After hearing my cup and the kettle crash to the ground, I asked Fluttershy whether she was available tomorrow evening.
"Okay, we need a few things: music, decorations, invitations and food. I can take care of the music, so that's settled. I think the first thing we need to do is to make sure we have food, since that will take the longest to prepare. Any ideas?"
I knocked on the door when we arrived, still hoping for at least a couple of pies. Applejack opened the door."Straight to the point I guess" I sighed. "I'm broke." Before Applejack could say anything, I added "I'm not taking the pies and cider for free, even if you insist. I'm going to work in the orchard or anywhere else you need help until I paid off everything. Whether you like it or not."
I left the orchard immediately after, now thinking about what the next thing should be we should go after.Rarity. Now there's a pony I can't stand, and she can't stand me. She's so pretentious, she's The Great Fashion Designer of Equestria, she's better than anypony. She just was lucky. I could have been just as great as she is, but she got lucky, and I didn't. I called her out on it, and she knew it. And I knew how she felt about me, I was a lowlife scum. I listened to techno, I wasn't sophisticated. She couldn't even stand the look of me. I was so ordinary. She always said my red eyes stood out like a sore thumb. Maybe they don't really suit me, but I was born with them.
We arrived at her boutique. I was still thinking if there was somepony we forgot, who might be able to decorate a party, but no one jumped to mind. I sighed, and knocked on Rarity's door.That voice, so elegant, so posh, can't she just be normal? "Who is it?"Can't she just say "Of course" "Please do wipe your hooves though." Why, am I that dirty, perhaps? You can't be this perfect. It's just wrong... somehow... It's as if she doesn't think I feel responsible at all. I see. Well, here goes. "Listen Rarity. I know you and I are not the best of friends, so this makes this even harder to say. I'm an idiot of a pony, I don't consider other ponies feelings. There's probably a million more things I should say, but here's the deal. I need you to make those decorations. I know it's below your standard work, but this is not for me. This is for Pinkie. So, could you please make those decorations?"I knew it, she just wanted to hear me beg, insult myself and all the other things I did there. Well, I guess it worked. Someday, however, I am going to show her that she is not as perfect as she thinks. I sighed.
"Everything ok, Vinyl?" Fluttershy asked.
Fluttershy took off to look for Dash, while I headed for the library. I didn't know much about Twilight, since she was always in that library of hers. I sighed. I hoped that she would understand that I was genuinely sorry about what happened to Pinkie. I knocked on the door. Spike answered it. "Oh. Vinyl, right?" I nodded. "Twilight, Vinyl's here!" Spike shouted. "She'll be right here." he said to me. "I have to say though, I really liked your beats on the Gala that couple of years ago. Why haven't I heard of you ever since? I mean, playing on the Great Galloping Gala must have given your reputation a boost?"
Crash! "Ouch! Spike, remind me not to read books while going downstairs."Wow, she's actually friendly to me "Twilight, I kinda need your help with something."
"She's coming to." I heard somepony say. "Vinyl, are you okay?"
When I came to, I was in the hospital. Fluttershy and Twilight were next to my bed.
I smiled. "When you see her tomorrow, tell her that I know how it feels when you lose your temper, and do things you didn't want to do." The image of Pinkie flashed through my head again, accompanied by a sudden jolt of pain. I grunted and Fluttershy called for the nurse. She entered with a pill and a glass of water.
I found myself in the Dreamworld, which probably was not how it was called, but it was what I named it, cliché as it may sound. Imagining a chair and seating myself, I wondered what to do. It suddenly came to me that I would miss the party tomorrow, for there was no way a pony with a concussion could go to a party. But, alas, there was nothing to do about that. "I hope Rainbow Dash doesn't feel too guilty and that Applejack manages to make her pies and hope whoever they can find for the music does a great job... I really hope that Pinkie Pie enjoys the party, she really deserves it." Helplessly I sat on the floor of this black void in my mind. Though time flowed differently here, from what I could understand, it wasn't just the pace that was different, for five minutes here could be a second outside, or more than an hour. "While I'm here, I might as well imagine some music, maybe time will go faster." Then an idea popped into my mind. Considering the place where I resided, I looked around, hoping to see something, well, pop. Rather disappointingly, nothing happened, but the idea was still in my mind. Perhaps, instead of wasting my time here, I could practice my skills here, at night, where I had both the time and the material at my disposal. So I imagined my turntable, some boxes and a couple of records to practise with. Suddenly dizzy, I wondered if this was an effect of the concussion.
After a while, not being sure about the time exactly, I gave up on trying to play music, because it was impossible with a headache to focus in the slightest. So, I shut down the turntable. I felt tired, strangely enough, considering I was sleeping. Imagining a bed, my headache increased, so I went to lie on it.
As soon as I stepped from the bed, she waved her hoof to make it disappear. Walking over to the table, My strength wavered again and I felt dizzy. Taking a sip from the coffee, I immediately felt my strength return. Has the Princess done anything special with this coffee, it's so invigorating .
I didn't quite know what to think, or how to respond to that, so I just took another sip of my coffee, which strengthened me again. "Thank you for the coffee, Luna, it really gave back my strength. I'm going to need it if I want to practise some more. With that, I stood up from the table and went to the turntable."
I was in the classroom, paying attention to the teacher. Today's lesson was about music. I loved music, it was so nice and warm. There were many kinds of music, but every kind was fun. Looking over my side, I noticed that my cutiemark still wasn't there, but it wouldn't take long anymore. I knew that it had something to do with music, I could feel it. The other fillies didn't understand music as much as I did, and none of them were interested in the lesson, apart from Octavia, but she already had her cutiemark. Then came the moment I had been waiting for, we went to the music class to look at the instruments.
This is a dream. Nothing happened though.No, I don't I don't need your help!
We arrived at the music class, and I tried out all the instruments. I could play every one of them, but nothing felt... right. After every attempt I looked at my side, hoping to see a cutiemark, but to no avail. I sat down, completely in the dumps. Music was one of the few things that felt special to me, but apparently, even there I was wrong. The teacher came sitting down next to me, and asked what was wrong.
"Uhm, Octavia? H-How did you get your cutiemark?"
I couldn't find anything, but I really wanted her to play something for me, so I took some piece of paper and wrote down what seemed like a good combination of notes. I had been given a few lessons, so I knew what notes were, but not much more.
She pointed at my flank and said, "Look Vinyl" I looked to see that my cutiemark had appeared. "Hey everyone" she called out, "Vinyl got her cutiemark!" To me she asked "What did you do to get it?"
Another white flash.
School was out. They would be waiting for me at the front gate, but I had no choice. The only way in or out of the school was through that gate. So, I made a run for it, hoping that they weren't there yet. As I came close to touching the gate, I suddenly felt something hit my hind leg. Not being able to hold my balance, I smacked against the ground. So close. My gramps told me I should fight them off, and so I will.
Something snapped in me, as I tried to charge him. His two lackeys barely could hold me, but they managed long enough for the boss to notice me.Those are the sheet music I made for Octavia
Another flash.
It finally was Octavia's turn to audition. As always, she had asked me to write her a piece, and I gladly had, because she really deserved to be accepted in the Royal Equestrian Academy for Music. Apart from worried parents and the judges, I was the only spectator. Octavia was my only friend, and we shared our interest for music. Whenever we were together, we discussed music, we listened to music, we played music. We shared a bond that could not be broken.An ode to Friendship ." I chuckled, the name was based on Beethoofen's "Ode to Joy", my idol ever since that one day I discovered my cutiemark. I wanted to be just like him, apart from being deaf, of course. Then she started playing, and even though I knew what was coming, her music kept surprising me with its pure tone.
Another white flash.
It had been a year since Octavia had joined the Academy, and I had heard nothing from her. During that entire year, I had tried getting into the School, but never had. Almost every time a pony played my pieces, they were accepted, but I never heard anything from the School. My gramps always said jokingly that great composers were only great after they died. But I wanted to be famous now. I wanted to write pieces that would make ponies to recognize me on the street as they did with many artists. So I gave up on composing classical music, and laid myself on more modern types of music. Techno was the new thing, so I used all the remaining bits I had to buy a synthesizer, and became a DJ. I could finally play the music I wrote myself, and after a few hard years, I became a hit. I became famous. Ponies recognized me on the streets. But my personality changed alongside the music I made. I now was a wild, drunk party animal, and I liked it. Soon, I became as notorious as I was famous, which only helped my reputation to play in clubs. Gigs would pay me hundreds of bits just to play a few songs. I didn't care that Octavia had dropped me, I didn't need her anymore. I was famous, and becoming rich very fast.
Another white flash. How long was this going to continue?
Great Galloping Gala. The musicians were cleaning up after everypony had left. I was done pretty fast, so I went to the bar for a drink. That drink quickly became a dozen, till the barman didn't want to serve me anymore. I cussed and looked around to see somepony come over to me. Octavia. "Hello Vinyl, it's been a while."
I was back in the Dreamworld, an exhausted Luna standing next to me. "Are you okay?" I asked her.
Suddenly I heard familiar music. "Beethoofen" I whispered. "The Ode to Joy. No wait... That's... me. The Ode to Friendship."They hadn't. It had taken more than two years for me to actually gain publicity. Those might have been the two hardest years of my life, but I kept trying, and I was happy.
I woke up, wondering where I was. Remembering I was in the hospital, I rubbed my head. My headache was gone I could feel a bump on the back of my head though. Though it was still dark outside, I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep again. So, I stood up and went on a walk inside the hospital, thinking about what Luna had showed me in my own dreams. I wandered past the counter, lost in thought. Nurse Redheart saw me walking about.
From Scratch
I was stopped from writing by a gleam of light coming through the window on the opposite side of the room, above an empty bed. It was a nice touch to have windows above the bed, and one across the room, just so that the one who lied there could see straight ahead, through the window opposite of him. The windows were pointed south and north, so the afternoon sun would be straight on my face. Now, however, under the condition I was in, the light was too strong, as concussions often have the effect that they increase the sensitivity from light. So I quickly stepped out of bed, and out of the sunlight. I could use a walk, so I went to the northern wing of the hospital, getting away from the sun, and where the light wouldn’t be as intense. I entered a few hallways until I came upon a sign which read:
Music Room
I heard a soft melody. Music. I entered it, to find it almost completely deserted, apart from a young filly with her violin. She was very young, had a brown coat and a bright white mane. She was practising, so trying to not disturb her, I sat down and just listened to her. She hadn’t seen me enter, so I had a closer look at her. The coat I thought was brown, was more of a dark red with a reddish brown undertone. The white mane jumped out immediately. It had been kept short, her tail mane was very basic and short. Her eyes were a darker, browner tone than her coat. Listening to her playing, I could tell that she still had a long way to go, but I could feel that she had talent. Especially if she kept practising like she was now. When she stopped, I gave her an applause. She jumped up in surprise, then she blushed, and mumbled something.
I smiled at her. “And what might your name be, young filly?”
“That was beautiful. Why haven’t you made more records?” Esther asked.
“Esther!” I heard a shout from the hallway.
“Vinyl, there you are, where have you been?” she said.Orphanage. “She’s an orphan? I had no idea...” Then I noticed something about nurse Redheart. She wasn’t telling me something. “Tell me what’s the matter.”Am I really such a terrible pony. I probably ruined Esther’s only chance at playing the violin. I destroyed her dream.
I went straight back to work, as it was far from finished, I still had a lot of work to do, but I enjoyed every second of writing and improving it. I hummed the the symphony to test where it wasn’t coherent, what parts needed to be changed, and what parts were good. A knock on the door interrupted me. The door opened and nurse Redheart poked her head in.
After I said those words, there was an awkward silence. I sighed, deciding I’d be the one to break it. “Rainbow Dash, I’m sorry.”
Knocking on the door, nurse Redheart entered. “I’m sorry, but I need a word with Vinyl. Would you ladies mind waiting outside?”
“My story begins eleven years ago. I just had been in detention for drawing in class. Actually, I think I had been writing one of my first symphonies, but the teacher couldn’t stand me, and he used every possibility he had to punish me. Anyways, I was going to be late for dinner if I didn’t hurry, so I ran towards the gate. On the way there, somepony made me trip. I fell hard, but I immediately got up. Three colts blocked my way... they took my backpack and threw everything out. I tried to fight my way out, but they just punched me down. Then the boss of the three found the symphonies I had written, but not being able to understand them, he just threw them away. I tried to grab them, but he punched me down again. He then realised they were important to me. Because he still couldn’t understand them, he just... burned them using his horn. I lost it, I charged him and hit him, making him bleed. For revenge, he had his two minions hold me on my hind legs so he could punch me freely. After so many punches, they just dropped me, and left. I couldn’t do anything, my entire body was broken, so I just laid there. Then nothing... I woke up in the hospital, a week later.
The entire room had gone quiet. “You can tell them all the medical stuff, nurse”
Rainbow Dash had closed the distance between her and me in less than the blink of the eye. “Snap to it, will you? Yes, you had a bad youth, so what? You can either sit there and mope about it, or do something about it. What are you going to do?”
I woke up to the soft sound of music. Clearly the party is going on. What time is it? I looked around, hoping to find a clock, but there was none to be seen. I decided to go ask nurse Redheart. But upon arriving at her counter, I noticed she was gone. There was a note there.
Went to Pinkie's party.
I sighed. Looking at the clock behind the counter, I noticed it was only 8 o'clock. Which meant that the party had only begun half an hour ago. I sighed. I wished I could be there, I felt a lot better, but it maybe was for the best that I stayed the night in the hospital. I walked back to my room, noticing that the music had stopped. Huh, that's odd. I walked back into my room.
SURPRISE!
I jumped in surprise.How does she do it. I've been out of this room for not even five minutes, and she manages to set up a surprise party.
As we were cleaning up the party, Applejack approached me. "Ah'll be expecting ya tomorrow at noon at the farm. Don't be late." She then left, saying she had to be up early tomorrow, thanked both Pinkie and me for the party.
