Silence filled the classroom as they waited for their special guest. Diamond Tiara was wide awake in anticipation of this grand pony because her father, Filthy Rich, was the one who invited this pony for a presentation. Not everypony was as ecstatic, however. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were fast asleep, with the latter snoring as loud as a bear in hibernation. Ms. Cheerilee was starting to get anxious over the silence, so she decided to think on her hooves before she went crazy.
"Everypony! I have an activity we can do while we wait for our special guest!"
All the little fillies sat upright to pay attention. "As you all know, our theme for this upcoming lecture is music," she said as she pushed in a fairly large chest that was somewhat the size of her, "I decided to bring a variety of instruments to help your insight into what it means to play an instrument!"
As if on cue, she opened the chest and the box folded outward into a table and was spread out with a large variety of instruments. Violins, cellos, guitars, flutes, trumpets, there were as many as there were students in the classroom! All the little fillies were wowed at the sight of so much variety. Taking a deep breath, Cheerilee announced,
"Okay, come on up and jam out!"
All the students rushed up to the table to pick out an instrument of their choosing. The Cutie Mark Crusaders picked up a harmonica, flute, and guitar. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon picked out a clarinet and violin. Soon after them, all of Cheerilee's students were able to pick up something to play around with. With so many instruments being played wildly, however, the classroom erupted in what could only be described as "Discord's Sympony."
Though as much fun as everypony was having, the fact of the matter was that the special guest was still late. Cheerilee was relieved that all the fillies were occupied, but she also had another job to worry about-- being a teacher. Sure they were having fun and she's glad for that, but as long as she's being paid by Filthy Rich for this special guest, her hooves were tied for the most part until she arrives. Cheerilee enjoyed being a teacher regardless of its flaws. Seeing anypony smile always brought a wonderful feeling to her chest. It was as if she was sitting in front of a hearth, warming her body from a chilly winter's night. As long as her students wore a smile on their faces, all was well in her world. Now where in Equestria is that po-
As soon as Cheerilee was about to finish her thought, somepony knocked on her classroom door. Everypony stopped playing their instruments for a moment, as Cheerilee walked over to open the door. She was relieved that the pony who knocked was indeed the guest that was expected.
Turning head back to the class, she said, "Alright my little ponies, put back the instruments and return to your seats! Our special guest has arrived."
After a minute or two, all of her students returned to their respective seats. After everypony was well adjusted, Cheerilee cleared her throat to get the class' attention.
“Everypony, allow me to introduce you to our guest speaker. As requested by Diamond Tiara's father, Mr. Rich," she waved her hoof towards the pink pony with the toy crown on her head. "I would like to introduce you to one of Ponyville's most talented musicians. She was a member of the Canterlot Royal Symphony as the lead cellist... Lady Octavia Melody!"
The class clapped their hooves as the grey mare walked in, head held high in confidence. Octavia walked to Cheerilee and shook her hoof greeting her. "Thank you Cheerilee." She turned to face the classroom.
"Greetings, everypony. It is an honor to be here this afternoon. I hope nopony wasn't too bored while I was on my way here." All the children in the classroom shook their heads reassuring Octavia. "So to start things off, does anypony heard of a stallion named 'Ledvin van Ouija'?"
The fillies gave a look of confusion, looking at each other hoping to give some sort of an answer. Octavia rose her eyebrow, curious to the reason behind the silence.
“Actually, I have an idea on who he might be!" Sweetie Belle raised her hoof in the air, waiting to be called on. Octavia gave an approving look with a bright smile. "Isn't he a famous conductor that made one of the instruments we played with?"
"Not too far off there, little one," replied Octavia. She started to walk side by side next to the table of instruments that Cheerilee laid out. "Ouija did not create an instrument, but he was well regarded at the time as the best player of said 'string' instrument. Can anypony guess which one it was?" Almost all the students raised their hooves up at once, anxious to give their wild guess.
Octavia pointed to Silver Spoon since she raised her hoof up first. "I'm guessing he perfected the cello?" Octavia gave an approving smile to the little grey mare. "Yes, actually. This old colt was the reason I got into symphony music when I was your age."
Octavia walked over to her saddlebag and pulled out a book. It was fairly big, and just looking at it closed it seemed to have about four hundred pages, or more than that. Cheerilee widened her eyes in surprise, then turned to a face of concern. Hopefully she wasn't thinking of reading that entire novel, she has a class to teach! Thankfully, her fears were immediately relieved when Octavia opened near the end of the book. Octavia skimmed the page, and pointed to the part that she was looking for in the novel.
“Ouija was regarded as the greatest of his time for a very unique reason. But before I tell you about him, there's somebody else that you sho-”
“Uh, I thought it was every’pony’?” asked Scootaloo. The class glared at the pegasus, though not in an angry way versus annoyed. Scootaloo chuckled and slid into her seat embarrassed. Octavia cleared her throat to get the class’ attention.
“I do in fact mean every’body’.” The classroom looked confused, turning their heads to each other. “Ouija was a lead musician of a very particular faction. A faction that consisted of various types of species. From griffins, ponies, yaks, even dragons!”
All the fillies were wowed, immediately invested into the story. Octavia continued, “They were called the ‘Alduré'. A variety of people who wanted nothing more than to preserve the lives and culture of the entire world that was, at the time, in total chaos. Ponies were still separated by persistent fighting, which lead the land to become unstable via earthquakes and storms. The yaks saw them as a major threat and were even ordered to attack on sight if anypony crossed their path. The griffons kept to themselves, of course. They wished to keep the conflict away from their kind because as much as they were confident in their abilities to fight off any foe, they didn't want to risk giving potential enemies reason to attack Griffonstone.”
Octavia walked over to her cello, continuing her lecture as she was retrieving her signature instrument.” Dragons were even more aggressive than today's, constantly in fear of no food. A lack of gems as an alternative source, they were the top of the food chain and eat whatever meat they could get their claws in just to not hear their stomach growl another minute.”
The classroom, even Cheerilee, winced and were grossed out at the thought. With ponies being herbivores, it's understandable that the thought of another creature eating another would make anypony sick.
“For the longest time, there truly was no sense of peace and harmony. But, that didn't stop few to try and mend the world.” Octavia sat down, taking some rossen and tightening her bow. A small white unicorn with ice cream like hair raised her hoof. Octavia pointed to the little one with her bow.
“How are you able to hold the bow without using magic?” Octavia smiled, although inside she was really annoyed as such a popular, albeit annoyingly common question.
“I hold it in the cliff of the bow, wedged in between the frog and the stick itself,” she answered casually, holding the bow outward so the class can see how she does it.
“There are other ways to hold the bow though that would be getting off topic.”
“So, you were saying what these ‘Aldure' were doing?” asked Cheerilee. Octavia nodded in response. However, instead of saying yes, she continued to play a sonata of sort. The music was smooth, elegant, and to a few even as soft as a lullaby.
After a couple of minutes of playing her cello, she finally spoke and continued her lecture, “That piece essentially was the first step to the unification the Alduré were looking for. Ouija believed music was the language of the world, the go to way to communicate and get the world to pay attention. It was thanks to this colt that the Alduré even met to begin with. Were it not for Ledvin van Ouija, who knows if we ponies would even have the chance to live in Equestria?”
The fillies were in the zone, completely invested in the story. It really was amazing to tell this story to all the ponies. Octavia continued to talk about Ouija the rest of the lecture. She mentioned how she loved the idea of music bringing ponies together. The thought of a single equine bringing an entire planet together is really something on another level of epic. The power of symphony music pulls Octavia’s own heart strings, as if someone was playing a cello in her soul. Ledvin van Ouija showed that kind of power to a plethora of species. To calm the large, powerful, and mighty beast of dragons. To relax and humble a pride of griffins, allowing an outsider to feel like he was one of their own. Octavia always admired and dreamed of bringing other people through the same tactic. Something, anything to bring a united world. Even if her destiny was for welding, she would try her best to bring others in a form of metallic art. So when she found out her destiny was music, symphony music no less, it felt like she was the next to do something great. That belief also gave her one of her most troubled flaws of being a touch high and mighty. She wanted to make sure her practice was the absolute best she could be, so any interference or outside influence throws her off she tends to get short. Filthy Rich being the exception this one time because she did need money to keep a roof over her and Vinyl Scratch's head. Though on that thought, she did wonder why he even offered to begin with. Getting an answer will have to wait until after the presentation.
After about an hour from the start of the lecture, Octavia asked the class, “So does anypony else have any questions?” The students collectively shook their heads, giving a sure no for an answer.
“Well, if that is the case, I think that would conclude the talk for today.” Octavia went to put away her cello, and looked back to Cheerilee’s one last time. “Thank you all for inviting me here today,” she gave a bow to the class. “I hope you all have a wonderful day.”
All the fillies and colts clapped their hooves excitedly, cheering even for the awesome presentation. Octavia smiled, cheering inside for herself that she was able to impress other ponies at all with her story. Most of the time she gets looked at funny when she even tried to mention Ouija, it's as if she was preaching to some ancient deity. It's surprising how nopony is aware of how important he really was to pre-Equestrian history. As much as she wants to think she's teaching other about the Alduré, it's understandable why common ponies would think otherwise. There's so much lost history it's hard to say what's really the truth unless one was there. No reason to dwell on the fact. Only thing Octavia wanted was to go home, lay down and read a nice, simple book. So, she shook her hoof with Cheerilee as a professional farewell, and walked on her way home… assuming Vinyl Scratch didn't blow up the house with her antic creating music.
