Galactic Harmony

“You’re kidding,” the mare gaped as the Doctor finished the short introduction to his flying blue box. He spun around to face at her, a look of childish glee printed on his face.

“Welcome Miss Octavia Melody to the TARDIS.” He greeted with a formal bow. “Anywhere in time and space, anything you can conceive of and everything you can’t. It is now all at our finger tips…or hooves as the case may be.”

“Just how big is the universe?” Octavia asked in wonder glancing at what seemed to be the TARDIS’ sole viewport, spying a singular blue and green ball in the distance.

“Well that is a whole other matter in and of itself. Suffice it to say that you could visit a planet every second every day for the rest of your life and you still wouldn’t have seen them all, and don’t get me started on null space.”

“And ours is but a small part of it,” Octavia marveled silently.

“Oh more important than you think! Especially after the Equestrian Supernova Maelstrom Event.”

“…The Supernova what now?”

“Oh um, uh, well you know how civilizations are, they come and they go.”

“Doctor,” Octavia said with an almost authoritarian tone.

“Sorry, if I gave you all the answers…” the Doctor replied happily skirting around the console as if trying to avoid eye contact.

“If you gave me all the answers what?” Octavia asked with a raised eyebrow, edging him on.

“Well you…you’d, you’d miss out on all the fun…” he paused, glancing at the large hexagon shaped control panel in the middle of the room thoughtfully before muttering. “Or we could end up blowing a hole in time and space again.”

“Doctor…”

“But just think of it! So many secrets of the universe out there! Where do you want to go? There’s so much to see, so much to do and we have all the time…”

“Doctor, don’t we have a somewhat more pressing matter at hand?” Octavia asked sharply.

“Oh…” The Doctor suddenly looked very lost, his eyes sheepishly darted back and forth before he resumed his rapid pace chatter. “Forgive me. I’m so used to simply gallivanting around the universe, dashing to and fro. Force of habit I guess. Very well, where shall we start?”

“I, I don’t know.” She stammered, glancing at him, embarrassed at being put on the spot. His eyes gleamed at her with the same innocence and happiness that Octavia had seen the Apple family’s dog look at her with. “You’re the expert where do you think we should start?”

“Well that’s the trouble isn’t it? Our abductor left very little that we could identify him with and in all of time and space. I suppose we could start with just a little basic information. I gathered from your photographs that you two were…performers of some kind.”

“Musicians,” Octavia acknowledged. “Vinyl was a Disc Jockey, she also made her own, electronic music.” her face involuntarily curled as the last two words slipped out of her mouth.

“And you?”

“Oh, I’m a cellist with Ponyville’s Chamber Quartet,”

“A cellist? Fascinating!” the Doctor’s face lit up as he approached her again, leaving several important looking buttons blinking away on the console. “Tell me…”

“Doctor, as enthralling as this conversation is turning out be…” Octavia pressed gently. The Doctor paused mid trot as a shade of red crossed his muzzle.

“I’m doing it again, aren’t I?…I don’t often get to travel with someone in the upper echelon, if you catch my drift.” It was Octavia’s turn to blush. “I…I mean I’ve travelled with dignitaries before, people whom I’ve been very fond of, but I don’t think I’ve ever truly had the company of a classically trained musician.”

“Well, I’m not really in any position to join the full orchestra yet but, if you like we can go out for tea later and discuss everything…aristocratic.”

“Tea?”

“Focus Doctor,”

“Right, right sorry.  A musician then. Well nearly planets and cultures celebrate the arts so naturally singling anyone out will be quite difficult. Which one would want to kidnap your friend? Perhaps we should be asking why they would want to kidnap her. What specific type of artist was your friend, musically?”

“Vinyl’s music? Art?” Octavia answered with a wry smile.

“Naturally,” the Doctor sighed. “But electronic music is a staple on many planets. Let me see 21st century Earth, the founding of Trost, the tech renaissance of Corellia.”

“Like like finding a needle in a stack of hay fries, we need something more substantial to go on,” Octavia muttered. As if on cue the TARDIS was suddenly launched forward. With a swift athletic move, (that Octavia cynically observed in her head must’ve come from experiencing situations like this multiple times) the Doctor latched onto the control panel with his hooves to secure himself.

“Hold on Ms. Melody!” The Doctor shouted in a panic as he desperately tried to pull himself onto the control panel with his hooves. The TARDIS continued to tilt as the Doctor continued to try and get ahold of the controls. His desperate scrapping soon descended into a wild flailing of limbs as he tumbled towards the entrance crashing into Octavia.

Octavia’s could feel a distinct thumping in her head. A chill washed over her only to be followed by a distinct hot flash. Her organs seemed to be trampolining around, causing her to grab her stomach as the interior of the white TARDIS walls began to blur. All sound began to fade leaving the curious tune of the Doctor whistling at the forefront. It was a strange tune, it seemed so very familiar and yet she couldn’t quite place it. Before she could ponder it any more in her half conscious state of mind there was another resounding crash.

As suddenly as the giddiness had set in, it disappeared. Octavia blinked at the sudden clarity, now perfectly aware of her surroundings, which happened to include the stallion sitting on top of her. She glanced at the Doctor to see him still wide eyed and flailing his arms in the air as if still trying to maintain control of the TARDIS.

There was a loud creak as the TARDIS suddenly tilted forward throwing the two away from the door and sprawling onto the spacious white floor.

“Doctor?” Octavia asked still slumped on the ground.

“Yes Miss Melody?” The Doctor replied glancing at her from his backside.

“You’re not actually a pony are you?” she asked feeling the need to confirm the obvious fact that this creature had no idea how to use his limbs.

“Well no,” The Doctor answered offering Octavia a hoof to help her up from off the floor. As soon as she was up the Doctor proceeded to gallop to the control panel began the familiar process of pressing buttons and flipping switches.

“Alien?”

“Well…what if I told you I was really a mostly hairless biped with…a sunken muzzle, less pronounced ears and no tail.”

“That sounds horrifying,” said with a dead monotone as she watched the eccentric Doctor running around his console panel.

“Yes I guess we are in a way,” the Doctor pondered, boldly stepping out of the TARDIS. “You know I always love the feeling of…oh,”

“What?”

“We’re still in Equestria, perhaps that TARDIS malfunction simply returned us to the last known coordinates.”

A horrible thought stuck Octavia. “You do know how to pilot this thing correct?

“Hmm, oh off and on,” the Doctor replied as casually as ever.  “As long as we don’t encounter any temporal paradoxes, gaping black holes in the sky, creatures from the center of the planet that sort of thing, we should be fine.”

“I can’t quite place it but it feels like…like,” Octavia whispered, stopping short of ‘I’m not supposed to be here’. Just glancing around at the vibrant Ponyville afternoon it didn’t seem like anything could be amiss. Citizens trotted back and forth going about their daily routines as if the blue box that had materialized had been there all their lives. The Doctor himself walked back inside the TARDIS with a curious look on his face. Suddenly, a group of school children ran across Octavia’s view and realization hit her.

“Oh no,”

“Temporal Paradox?” the Doctor asked, head popping back out of the TARDIS in a panicked and yet somehow gleeful voice.

“Middle school,” Octavia answered flatly.

“I’m…sorry, that’s a new one,” the Doctor replied hesitantly as he came up beside her. Octavia raised a hoof in the direction of a lanky looking grey earth pony that seemed to be struggling under the weight of a cello case.

“Oh dear.”

“I’ll admit I wasn’t that graceful,” Octavia began giving him a raised eyebrow. She sighed to herself as she watched a shaggy blue-maned filly burst past her.

“Careful Strings! Maybe next time you pick an instrument that isn’t twice your size.” Vinyl flashed her a cheeky grin before running off leaving the young Octavia with nothing to do but glare and continue to struggle under the weight of her instrument.

“Miss Octavia I think it might be best…” the Doctor began attempting to place a hoof on her side. His brow quickly furrowed as it passed through her. Octavia began to sway as the all to familiar sensations began to wash over her again. Outside noise vanished as her focus zeroed in firmly onto Vinyl and her past self. The Doctor looked panicked as he turned wildly around before rushing back into the TARDIS.

“Shorted out the time differential,” he cried in alarm. “The recall circuit? Oh dear girl please, please, please not now.”

Now in a complete panic, the Doctor threw open the doors and bellowed at the top of his voice. “Miss Octavia. Miss Octavia! Listen to me! This is a paradox. Whatever you do, do not come into contact with your past self. That would be bad! So until I can find you, stay put, and I will find you I promise!” with a whirl and a growl the TARDIS began to disappear.

     Octavia only vaguely heard his warnings. For some reason she was reminded of a dream she had when she was younger, where she’d been swimming through an endless vat of chocolate pudding. Her mind felt a lot like that at the moment, straining to find any sort of coherent thought as her body slowly began to move on its own. A fog began to cloud her eyes and her vision slowly began to go white until she could see nothing at all.

     Octavia Melody blinked. Her vision and mind were suddenly so crystal clear that the only rational thought that popped into her head was to blink again. After several more rounds of this she shook her head and surveyed the surroundings.

     It reminded her somewhat of her dreams. True there may have been no perilous environment or all seeing force chasing her, but still there was something in the air, something dangerous.

     Octavia slowly began to take in her surroundings. She appeared to still be in Ponyville only a short time after she had left. It had to be, there was her past self still struggling under the weight of a cello. Hadn’t the Doctor warned her about stuff like this? Doctor?

“Doctor!” she shouted suddenly. Two passing mares glanced at her oddly before snickering as they passed. Octavia blushed as she realized just how much noise she was making. Nope, definitely not a dream.

Octavia took a quick glance back at her younger self, watching the poor filly stumble under the weight of her instrument. Poor girl, Octavia thought to herself. She couldn’t come into contact with her past self, Octavia remembered that much, but would it really be so bad to just follow her? Just to make sure nothing happened to her past...

Octavia stopped herself mid thought. What in the world was she thinking? Of course nothing was going to happen to her or she wouldn’t be around to ask the question. That’s how time travel worked…right? The thought had just creped into her mind so quietly she hadn’t noticed. Octavia suddenly winced while grabbing her head. A familiar sensation seemed to be swimming around her.

“No!” she screamed in her mind “Not again.” She steeled her mind fighting off the suggestions. The more she resisted the more she could feel it, like something worming it’s way across her skull. Octavia bit her tongue to keep from crying out in pain. With her hooves clenched she gave her head a violent shake as the sensation finally dissipated. She took a deep breath and wiped her brow only to find that her coat was almost soaked in sweat.

“What’s happening to me?” she muttered. Her eyes were once again drawn to her past self when she saw it. “That’s not the way home.” Young Octavia had strayed from the beaten path, wandering towards the grove of trees that lay a ways beyond the schoolyard. Octavia stopped, she never went that way, and she hadn’t gone down that path since…

“So that’s what this is all about,” she mumbled to herself. With one last  look around she stumbled after herself.

The Canyon, as the local school children had taken to calling it was a gorge that lay just beyond the Ponyville city lines. However, it wasn’t so much of a canyon as it was a ravine. Well even then it wasn’t so much of a ravine as it was a steep miniature valley. Okay so it was a gully, a very large gully lined with boulders and a stream running through it but a gully nonetheless. Not perilous enough to rail off but dangerous enough for mothers to scold their foals for going anywhere near. In other words, just edgy enough for all kinds of dares and dumb challenges young fillies are prone to.

Octavia Melody on the other hand, came to the Canyon for a different reason. The grove of maple trees that grew near the steep incline provided just enough shade to keep one cool except on the hottest of Equestrian days. From the edge of the slope one could easily see clear to the other side where the Evermore Forest, the much tamer sister of the Everfree grew.

Octavia sighed to herself, crashing on the grass beneath her, undisturbed by the stifling presence of the cello case on her back as she started peacefully off into the distance. Finally she was alone, with nothing but her thoughts, her cello and the snickering that came from an upper branch of a nearby maple tree…Wait.

“Hey Strings, what’s up?” a cheeky voice drifted down. Octavia recognized the voice at once, letting out a long sigh she looked upwards to spy her fellow school filly Vinyl.

“What in the name of Mahler’s great ghost are you doing here?” she almost bellowed.

“I live here,” Vinyl replied smugly.

“What? Really?” Octavia was taken aback. Why had she never seen her out here?

“No, not really,” Vinyl replied a stupid grin still plastered on her face. Octavia’s face fell back into a look of absolute hate as gave the other mare a long hard look. She and Vinyl weren’t exactly enemies but the last thing anyone would expect them to be was friends’. It was no secret that Vinyl thought Octavia was about as interesting as dirt and she in turn would rather eat said dirt than spend a day with Vinyl. The angry look Octavia was giving her must’ve settled in because Vinyl suddenly turned serious. The two glared at each other for a moment before Vinyl turned her head in a huff.

“Look, I don’t like you and you don’t like me. Why don’t you just putter back on home, drop off your violin…”

“Cello,”

“Sure, why not,” Vinyl muttered waving her hand before continuing, “by the time you come back I’ll be gone.” Octavia paused, that suggestion actually made sense. A hundred arguments and comebacks crossed her tired mind, but deciding that she should at least try to match the others civility she stood up slowly, turned with her head held high and walked wordlessly away. Vinyl watched the other girl in annoyance as she left before leaning back against her tree.

“Snob” she muttered a bit loudly. Octavia paused and shot the tree an angry look.

“Vulgar brute,” she replied, giving into the game of schoolyard insults.

“Self righteous snit,” Vinyl shot back.

“Filthy, social neophyte!” Octavia yelled trotting back to the tree. There was a pause as Vinyl looked back down, now equally as angry.

“…Jerk,”

“You…you, disrespectful, lazy, worthless…” Octavia’s face was red, letting her cello case slip off of her back she turned and kicked the tree the small maple tree as hard as she could. The force of her young legs wasn’t much, but for a small instant the tree shook. Vinyl, suddenly off guard tumbled to the ground. Ignoring how close she’d come to slipping off the edge of the Canyon, Vinyl simply picked herself up and shook the dust from her mane.

Octavia backed up slowly, suddenly feeling a little bit silly. She thought about apologizing but she quickly shook off the thought. Averting her eyes as Vinyl checked herself for bruises Octavia considered just taking her cello and leaving.

‘No,’ she told herself, ‘She started this, she can be the first to leave.’ Only briefly realizing the childishness of the situation, Octavia lifted her head again and glanced at the other mare condescendingly.

“If you spent half as much time studying, as you do messing with those records of yours you’d be a decent musician,” she said simply.

“You know,” the other filly began, her voice brimming with bile. “If you spent half as much time working on your social skills as you did your kicks you might have more friends.”

That did it.

“Loudmouthed little…” Octavia said, feeling her eyes start the water a bit. She lifted her front hooves and shoved Vinyl in her chest.

“Spoiled brat,” Vinyl yelled back, catching her balance before delivering a swift punch (though for her age really much more of a tap) in return. Octavia gritted her teeth as she tumbled back into the dust. Vinyl stepped forward, mouth open about to continue when, with a growl Octavia picked herself back up and delivered a swift punch to her gut.

Vinyl felt the wind leave her body; it suddenly felt like her stomach had completely collapsed onto itself. Slightly dazed, she stumbled backwards. Without realizing how close she was to the edge of the Canyon, Vinyl took one step to far backwards. The pebble beneath her hoof slipped off and a split second later her rear hoof disappeared, the rest of her body quickly following.

Octavia was still breathing heavily as she watched the other mare slip. She blinked once as the realization of what she’d just done set in. Then she did the only rational thing she could thing of, panic.

“Oh, no, no, no, no,” there was a queasy feeling in her stomach, like she wanted to throw up. She began trotting nervously in place, as her face grew hot. “Please, oh please, oh Celestia I didn’t mean to kill her…”

“Well!” a strained, exhausted voice barked from beyond the edge. “If you help me out, I might just call us even.” Octavia rushed over to the edge and glanced down. There was Vinyl desperately clutching the earth cliff face, eyes squeezed shut. Ignoring the fact that Vinyl shouldn’t have been able to hold onto anything after her fall, Octavia nervously went into survival mode.

“Hold on!” she shouted rushing over to her cello case.

“Yeah! No! Take your time!” Vinyl yelled back, sounding equally panicked.

Reaching for the nearest object she could get her hoofs on Octavia grabbed her cello case and rushed over to the edge. Lowering the slim end of the case down the mare nervously waved it in front of Vinyl’s face.

Vinyl had no time to run her mouth about what was perhaps the least intelligent thing to grab, or how awkward getting her hooves around it would be. She dug her hooves into it as quickly as she could and yanked on it. As soon as Octavia felt herself being yanked forward she planted her gray hooves into the ground, kicking up dust.

“Lousy day to wear my contacts,” Vinyl gibed breathlessly, continuing to pull up as hard as she could, the dust irritating her eyes. Beneath the young blue haired mare a voice grunted as faintly as possible. The elder Octavia, now watching one of the most important events of her life play out in front of her caught one of Vinyl’s flailing hooves again and forced it upwards.

“Come on you hyperactive little snit,” Octavia mumbled to herself. The thought had occurred to her younger self a year or so after the event that she should have had nowhere near the amount of strength needed to drag the mare up from an almost vertical cliff face. In fact it had taken the older Octavia awhile to even find a suitable footing. “I really hope I’m doing the right thing here…wouldn’t want to cause another time…”

Octavia was knocked out of her reverie by one of Vinyl’s hooves kicking her in eye. Angrily throwing subtly to the wind, Octavia scooted up further and practically grabbed Vinyl before throwing her upwards. It did the trick, Octavia, flew backwards, Vinyl grabbed onto the edge, pulling herself up and the cello came crashing down onto older Octavia’s muzzle. Biting her tongue to keep from screaming at the pain she quickly grabbed the case and with all her might threw it back up onto the ledge.

It only occurred to Octavia later that a cello, even her old one from middle school was no light instrument. She doubted she would’ve been strong enough to throw it up on her own…must’ve been the adrenaline she mused.

Landing smack dab in the wannabe river Octavia let herself float downstream a little ways, with a shore face and a thoroughly fed up attitude before swimming to shore.

Meanwhile, the two younger mares had collapsed on their backs, gasping heavily.

“Geez, what have you been lifting?” Vinyl gasped, still trying to catch her breath. “Taxi’s?”

“Cello’s,”

“Oh yeah,” Vinyl said nodding her head as if that should’ve made perfect sense.

“Speaking of which, if it’s damaged in any way…” Octavia began sitting up. She looked around and started to panic again. Where was her cello? If that girl had pulled it down with her…she stopped once again and spied the case lying at the edge. Slowly and tiredly she trotted over and picked it up. “You know…never mind, this was all my fault anyway.”

“Yeah, it kinda was,” came the cheeky reply. Octavia looked back as the blue haired girl opened her gleaming mischievous eyes. For some reason, Octavia began to laugh. “Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch.” “This is what you high class types do right? Formal introductions?”

“Octavia, Octavia Melody,” the other mare answered with a posh flip of her now quite disheveled mane. It was Vinyl’s turn to chuckle.

“Well,” she began, stretching her limbs, “Considering we almost killed each other it might be safer to pick ourselves up and pretend like the other doesn’t exist.”

In the bushes just off the side of the main path, now thoroughly sore and soaking wet picked up Vinyl’s sunglasses that had fallen with her into the river. Remembering just how her story had ended she casually tossed the broken and cracked specs towards the tree. Hearing the noise the two mares turned towards the tree.

“Your glasses,” Octavia began. She looked sympathetically at the other mare; she’d never really seen her without those things. It was almost her trademark.

“Eh, it’s fine I got a spare at home…I think. No big deal.” Vinyl said, attempting to sound casual.

“Come on,” Octavia said grabbing her cello. “I have a pair I can loan you. Black rims, purple lenses, I think you’ll like them.”

“Uh, no, no thanks…I-I’ll manage without them.” Vinyl stuttered. “It just feels to much like charity. You know taking something from the rich…”

“Rich?” Octavia asked incredulously, acting affronted by word. Vinyl stopped cold, her eyes going wider.”

“No, no, I just assumed, I mean you always acted…I just thought.” Octavia didn’t laugh but the practically bubbly smile on her face told Vinyl that she’d been played.

“So you just assumed that because I like to dress nice my family is part of the old Canterlot aristocracy, the landed elite who just sit around all day eating high end carota?” Octavia asked as she and Vinyl began to trot back to Octavia’s house.

“Shut up,” Vinyl said punching Octavia lightly on the shoulder “I don’t know what you’re talking about half the time anyway.”

“Middle school,” the older Octavia grumbled to herself as she watched the two future friends walk off into the woods on good terms, “Never again.”

Almost as soon as she’d finished there was a familiar whirring sound echoing through the air. Looking almost like a shadow at first, then slowly materializing on the edge of the Canyon stood the Doctors TARDIS. The doors creaked open as the stallion stepped out, glancing at her coldly.

“Doctor?” the mare asked taking a cautious step forward.

“Silly me,” the Doctors kept his tone as cold as ice as he glared at her with furrowed eyebrows. “Prattling on about spatial anomalies when there was one sitting in front of me the whole time.”

“W-what does…?” Octavia shuddered under the glare. This trip, the memories, it had all been so much to process. The Doctors look softened as he realized just how worn she looked.

“Well no matter,” he rebounded, tipping his hat up jovially, all traces of anger or suspicion gone. “I’ll figure it out in time.  I always do!”

“Doctor?” Octavia’s voice crackled with tinges of anger. The Doctors cold façade was gone, now replaced by the look a filly with his hoof caught in the cookie jar.

“Yes?” he squeaked as Octavia arrived near his face.

“Ever since you left, I fainted twice, arranged my best friendship and apparently developed chronic migraines. Would you care to explain to me just what in blazes is going on?”