Chapters "All right everypony, class is starting, get settled now."
Cheerilee's voice pierced through the noisy classroom and calmed down the chattering. There were sounds of chairs being moved, tables being adjusted and muffled laughter. Then after just a few seconds, the entire classroom was silent.
Cheerilee waited until the whole classroom was quiet, then she spoke up, "Before we start today, I'd like to introduce a new filly who will be joining us today." She turned to the side of the room where the entrance was and said gently, “Come on. Don't be shy. You can come in now."
A light-grey pony came into the room. She had beautiful, light-purple eyes and smooth, long black hair. It seemed that she was carrying a big, black box with some sort of musical instrument inside on her back. She seemed too nervous to look up at any pony, so she just kept her eyes focused on the ground right in front of her foreleg.
"Well," Cheerilee gave her an encouraging look and asked, "would you like to introduce yourself?"
The new pony nodded a little and said nervously, "Hi... My name is Octavia." Despite her shyness, her voice was smooth like silk.
The roomful of little fillies stomped their hooves and chattered a little bit, welcoming their new friend.
"Well then, Octavia, why don't you sit next to... VINYL! Wake up already!"
The pony named Vinyl jerked awake. She had a fur coat as white as snow, and a mane with two shades of light blue. It was obvious that she was indeed sleeping from her tilted glasses and a line of drool slowly flowing down the corner of her mouth.
"There Octavia, that will be your assigned seat."
Octavia nodded in silence as she made her way to the back row of the classroom, trying her best to not hit anypony with the giant black box on her back. Everypony's eyes followed her to her seat, and then they went back to Cheerilee as she gave instructions on the day's lesson.
It took a while for Vinyl to understand what just happened. She looked at the grey pony sitting down next to her with curiosity. Then, as the lesson started, she moved over a bit and whispered, "Hi! I’m Vinyl Scratch, wha-- what is your name again?"
The grey pony completely ignored her.
Thinking that maybe she was too quiet to be heard, Vinyl decided to move even closer, and whispered louder, "Hi! I'm Vinyl Scratch, what's your name?"
The grey pony lifted one of her eyebrows and look at her with the same look a parent would give to their disobedient child. Then she shifted her eyes and had them fixed on the teacher, ignoring Vinyl once again.
It was pretty obvious that this grey pony did not wish to talk right now, so Vinyl just mumbled something and went back to her nap until she was woken up by what felt like a hoof tap on her shoulder.
She looked up and saw that the new grey pony was the one who woke her up. She yawned and said, "urg... what?"
"Class is over, Vinyl."
"Oh, it is...?" Vinyl finished the sentence with a big yawn followed by a deep sigh.
For a second, the grey pony seemed to be annoyed by this, but she soon put on a smiley face and said in a rather cheerful tone, "Hi, my name is Octavia. Very nice to meet you."
"(yawn) Nice name, Octavia..." Feeling a bit uneasy from the serious conversation, Vinyl decided to propose a new topic. She looked around and saw that the big box that Octavia was carrying had been carefully placed at the corner against the wall, so she decided to ask, "Hey, what's in the box?"
"It's...something I play." Octavia hesitated a bit for some reason.
"Oh really? Is it a umm..." Vinyl tried to think of something that an earth pony could play, which took her a good 10 seconds.
"Is it a, I don't know, a harmonica? With like a stand?"
Octavia looked at Vinyl as if she had just said something really stupid, which she had. Vinyl realized it after she saw the size of the box which was obviously oversized for a harmonica.
"Okay beats me, what is it?"
"It is a cello. Well, in fact, it is a custom piece so it's a bit different from a normal one. I would not be surprised if you guessed a double bass or something along that line, but a harmonica..." she gave Vinyl a challenging little smile.
Vinyl felt taunted, and just when she was about to speak, she realized something and dropped her jaw.
"You're playing a cello... and you're not even a unicorn! How... how do you play a cello without magic?"
Octavia answered with a simple "I just do", but Vinyl couldn't help but feel that Octavia was hiding something underneath that. But out of respect of her privacy and fear of offending her, Vinyl pretended that nothing had happened and decided to shift topic.
"Hey, you have a soprano clef for a cutie mark. That must mean your talent is music! Oh, I bet you are super good at playing the cello!"
Just when Octavia was about to reply, a voice cut her off, “Hi Octavia, what’s in that huge black box?”
Both Octavia and Vinyl turned around to see two male pegasus standing in front of them. One of them was dark brown, and the other one was light orange. Vinyl didn’t know their names, but she had heard bad news about them. They were the biggest jerks in the school, and they were well known forlaughing at and calling some ponies names. Judging by the grim smile on their face, she guessed that they had not come here to make peace with the new pony.
But before Vinyl could tell Octavia to not answer, Octavia had already turned around and said, ”It is a cello. A custom cello, to be precise.”
The two pegasus looked at each other for about two seconds, and then burst out into nasty laughter.
“An earth pony who wants to play cello? This is the funniest thing ever!”
Octavia’s face turned a little red. She bit her lip but said nothing.
“Yeah, what are you going to play it with? Your teeth?”
Vinyl felt the anger inside of her building up. She suddenly stood up, walked in between the two pegasus and Octavia, and then she turned to facing the two jerks, looked at them straight in the eye, and said in a threatening tone, ”Leave her ALONE!”
The brown pegasus was a bit surprised at being stood up against, but he quickly regained his senses and said, ”Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?” Then he took a step forward, almost smashing into Vinyl’s forehead with his own.
Vinyl didn’t speak. Instead, she used magic to levitate her glasses out of the way, directly staring into the pegasus’ eyes with her own.
She had the most red eyes, more crimson than the sunset on a summer night. The Pegasus’ courage failed him. He mumbled, “Let’s get out of here,” to the other pegasus, and they left with a loud “HMPH!”
Vinyl sighed a little, put her glasses back on, and turned back to see if Octavia was all right. She looked, only to find out that the seat had become empty while she had been arguing with the pegasus. She looked up and saw the back of Octavia disappearing through the exit of the classroom.
“Wait up, Octavia!” Vinyl quickly dashed forward and ran after the grey blur of the pony.
Vinyl almost lost sight of Octavia a few times, but she still managed to keep up. It was mainly because of Octavia’s unique hair style and the big cello box on her back which made her stand out from the crowd of fillies. Octavia disappeared down a quiet hallway leading to what looks like an unused music classroom and Vinyl quickly followed.
"Where in the hay is that pony going?" Vinyl said to herself while pushing the door open with her foreleg.
The room was deserted because it was lunch time and Octavia was sitting next to the window. The cello box was opened and carefully set next to her foot. She was standing on only two back legs and the cello was resting on her shoulder. She was holding the bow in her right hoof, and her left front hoof was on the hoofboard ready to press down on the strings. In front of her there was a music stand with some pieces of sheet music. She seemed unaware of Vinyl, and was concentrating on reading the notes.
“There you are, Octavia.” Vinyl went up and tried to speak as quietly and softly as possible, but Octavia was still a bit startled. She tensed up and turned around. Vinyl tried to put on the friendliest smile she could, and to her great comfort Octavia calmed down and said, “Oh, it’s just you.”
“Don’t be upset by some stupid colt; they are the biggest bullies around. Don’t let their words get to you.”
“I’m not… upset because of them.” Octavia’s reply surprised Vinyl.
“Then why did you leave?”
“Because... I am not good at arguing, so I thought if I left then the argument would extinguish on its own.” Octavia said.
“Well they are gonna pick on you any way. You should have stood up for yourself! You know, show them what you're made of!”
Octavia turned away from Vinyl, ”I…I am not made of anything…”
“What do you mean?”
Octavia bit her lips and fell into silence as if she had just swallowed a piece of bitter fruit.
“It’s okay. You can tell me, I promise I will keep it a secret,” Vinyl said to Octavia, who looked back at her with doubt.
“Pinkie promise.” Vinyl added.
It took a while for Octavia to make up her mind. She let out a long sigh, then looked out of the window and said, ”Because…they are kind of right.”
“They?” Vinyl repeated, thinking she was recalling the two bully pegasus. "It can’t be... they can be pretty much anything BUT right."
“Yes, the two pegasus. They are right. I am an earth pony and a cello isn’t… really cut out for me. Like…” Octavia held out her left hoof. For a second, Vinyl thought she was going to hold hooves with her, but then Vinyl realized that she was just trying to show her the hoof. So Vinyl took a step forward and saw a lot of small lines on Octavia's hoof. Some of them were shallow and others were really deep.
“Wha… what happened?”
“These are cuts I got while I was trying to hold down the strings in place. I practice day and night, but still I do not sound anywhere near professional. Without magic, I can never be as good as a unicorn.”
“Aww there, come on now. I’m sure you're great. It doesn’t matter if you are not the best…”
“But it DOES!” Octavia cut her off, her voice shaking a little, ”If I can’t be better than other ponies, then what’s the point of playing at all?”
Vinyl sighed. She lifted her own hoof and put it gently on top of Octavia’s, and then said, in a very peaceful but serious tone, ”Octavia, do you like playing the cello?”
“Of course. It is my favorite thing in the world.”
“Then keep playing. It doesn’t matter if you are the best or not. What’s important is that you're doing what you enjoy. Life is not a competition.”
Octavia looked away:”No… it is different. You would not understand.”
“But I do!” Vinyl said, and turned around to show her cutie mark to Octavia.
Octavia gasped at the mark on her friend. It was a double eighth note.
“You are a musician too?”
“Yes ma’am. I am a DJ.”
“A D…J? What is that?”
“DJ stands for disc jockey. It’s like working with records. You spin them around and you slide them. You mix records around and change it in the middle. It’s really cool and quite electrifying.”
“I have never heard of that.”
“Well judging by your looks and your bow tie, you must be a classy filly. No wonder. The DJ stuff is kind of… modern and new,” Vinyl said with excitement. She then realized that she was drifting off topic. ”But my point is, I am not the best around. Even so, I still enjoy DJing. It’s just like fun, if you get what I am saying.”
Octavia didn’t reply, so Vinyl decided to lift a chair and move it next to Octavia. She sat down and then said, ”Well here, why don’t you play a song for me? I’d love to hear you play. We’ve still got plenty of time before lunch is over.”
This was the very first time Octavia had ever performed in front of anypony besides her family. Though she felt uneasy and nervous, the idea of performing for a friend just for fun sounded interesting to her.
A series of notes lit up the slightly dim room. Although Vinyl was not precisely a classy filly, she had always been a good and quiet audience when somepony else was playing. The tender flow of classical music was not what she was used to, but she didn’t dislike it. In fact, she found herself nodding and moving her front leg to the rhythm.
The music was at a slow pace in relation to what Vinyl usually listened to. The tone was calm and bright, like a lazy Sunday morning on a summer day. The piece was not fancy, but Octavia put a lot of thought into it. She enhanced some notes to make them bright and, for the lack of a better word, jumpy. Other times she dimmed some notes to make them blend in with the melody. The whole piece felt alive in general.
Octavia ended the song with a powerful crescendo on the last note, and then she removed her bow from the string. The last note echoed inside the empty room, again and again, until it finally faded into the distant noise of other ponies that were still outside playing.
Octavia felt a strange satisfaction that she had never felt before. She felt joy and happiness as she finished the piece. She saw the look on Vinyl’s face and knew that Vinyl had enjoyed it. That made her heart light. She used to think that the happiness about playing cello was to master a piece of music, to stand out from the crowd, and to become the greatest cello player ever. However, right here in this small room, she felt joy and peace simply from playing a simple song to her new friend to enjoy.
"Maybe I can make a difference after all." She thought, "Maybe even without magic, I can make magic happen."
(About 7 years later)
It wasn’t until the following morning that Octavia realized what she had said to Vinyl last night. After the Gala was over, Vinyl suggested hanging out at a nearby bar. Octavia was quite exhausted from the event and some small… accidents, so she thought that a nice, relaxing drink at the bar would be nice. It was indeed quite relaxing... a bit TOO relaxing. She had been busy all week rehearsing and performing, and as soon as that tightened string in her brain was loosened, it let out a whole FLOOD of all kinds of craziness. Octavia ranted to Vinyl about the Gala, about the princess, about the pink pony who jumped on her and somehow didn't get in trouble, about the chaos in the hall caused by a lot of panicking little animals which somehow managed to get into the hall from the garden. Octavia felt like she had never been so chatty in her entire life and, in just a few minutes, her lips were dry from all the words. Being at a bar, she ordered another drink which further numbed the alertness of her brain to allow more chatting. Eventually she couldn’t even understand her own sentences and Vinyl, being as drunk as she was, didn’t even notice the random words that hardly connected into proper sentences coming out of Octavia’s mouth.
It was at that point where Octavia realized what she had gotten herself into. She was too drunk to move, too drunk to speak, and too drunk to even come up with an idea to get home safely. Luckily, she remembered that she had a tag on her cello case with her address on it, so at least they wouldn't be thrown out onto the street. With that safety assurance in mind, Octavia decided to not care about anything and just go to sleep.
It wasn’t the first time some filly had gotten drunk at the bar right after the Gala, so the waiters were prepared to transport the snoring ponies to where they belonged. They found Vinyl snoring with half of her body on the table and other half on the sofa. Octavia was sitting on the opposite end with her muzzle next to a spilled glass of wine, snoring as well. The two waiters gave each other a bitter smile and brought over a large carpet to wrap up the two ponies to put them onto a pony-dragged cart. One of the waiters noticed the address on Octavia’s cello case, so he sent the driver to the place without forgetting to put the pony cart's fee onto Octavia's tab.
Octavia felt her senses slowly returning to her. She felt like her brain was about to split in two with a severe headache followed by an extreme need of water. She tried to lift a hoof to push herself into a standing position and failed miserably. It felt as if her body was made of lead and it was so heavy that Octavia felt like she was going to suffocate under her own weight. She struggled for a while and then gave up trying.
Then, her vision returned to her. At first it was all blurry and watery, and then slowly she was able to see shades of color. Octavia blinked a few times and her vision came into focus… relatively speaking. Then she realized why her body had felt so heavy: Vinyl was collapsed on top of her.
“Vinyl…” Octavia spoke and quickly stopped, frightened by the strange noise coming from her muzzle. Was that really her voice? She coughed a little to clear her throat and then she said, “Vinyl, get up!” Her voice was still scattered and broken, but it was within Octavia’s range of acceptance. Vinyl let out a mumbled “Hmmmm?” before turning her body around to fall right back into her dreams.
“Vinyl! I am serious. Please get up, I can’t get out!”
This time Vinyl didn’t respond at all. Her chest was moving up and down rhythmically like an ocean wave, indicating that she was still deep in sleep.
Octavia had no choice but to try to push herself out from beneath Vinyl again. Luckily, Vinyl’s little turn had moved about half of her body weight off of Octavia. After another ten minutes or so of struggling, Octavia finally managed to remove herself from beneath Vinyl’s weight and break free. She stood up and stretched her legs, back first and then front. Her whole body was still sore and her throat was still burning with the flame of thirst. She still had an extremely painful headache and was really dizzy, but at least she was able to drag herself into the kitchen to make Vinyl and herself a nice cup of warm tea.
"Hopefully nopony had seen us being so… impassionate last night," Octavia thought as she carefully picked up the teapot with her teeth. She poured herself a small cup of tea and then set the teapot down on the table. She then sat down at the table and took a little sip from the tiny tea cup. "The day right after the Gala was surprisingly quiet," Octavia thought. But she figured that she and Vinyl were probably not the only ponies who had spent all their energy at the Gala last night and had not woken up yet. Octavia was just not the type of pony to sleep past nine, unlike Vinyl, who was still lying on the floor in a weird pose, snoring.
Feeling a bit bored, Octavia decided to work on a cello piece that she had written a while ago. She finished her cup of tea, put the teapot back to where it belonged, and walked into the next room with her cello. Not wanting to disturb Vinyl, she quietly closed the door behind her and started practicing as quietly as she could.
Despite Octavia’s effort to contain the music inside the room, plenty of noise had soaked through the thin apartment wall and woke Vinyl up slowly over time. Vinyl had a weird dream that she couldn’t remember. She was sure that it hadn't been a nightmare, but a very sad dream, because she had woken up with the feeling as if she had just dropped her favorite food that she had been saving for last.
She shook her head to get rid of that nasty feeling, which made her headache even worse. Hearing Octavia playing the cello, she decided to walk over and knock on the door. The music stopped and she heard Octavia’s voice, “Come on in, the door is not locked.”
Vinyl pushed the door open with her hoof and saw Octavia holding her cello in place.
“Sorry that I have woken you up.” Octavia said.
“Aww it’s cool, dun worry about it.” Vinyl said, smiling, “It’s actually kinda refreshing to be woken up by some… nice music instead of some not so pleasant, random noises. Any way… do you have any … happier music? I’m not really in the mood for depressing songs.”
“Urg… well there is Canon in D Major.”
“Uhh… is it a happy song?”
“It’s calm and smooth.”
“Nah, I mean some music that’s fast and cheerful, ya know, something you can head bob to.”
Octavia lifted one of her eyebrows. “We don’t have that kind of electrifying music in classical music. The sound of the cello is naturally low and smooth. The same goes for the song. You cannot use the cello as an electric guitar.”
“Awww shuz, that’s lame. You should totally write a song like that then. I bet everypony would love to have some bright and happy cello songs.”
Octavia seemed a bit hesitant about the idea. “I’m not sure... Playing the cello is supposed to be a serious thing. It’s not like a guitar.”
“Well, it won't hurt to try, will it?”
Vinyl did have a point, so Octavia decided to give it a shot. However, it was harder than she thought. Even with Vinyl’s help, it was in the afternoon on the next day when she was able to finally finish the piece. It looked... strange... as Octavia looked through it, not particularly something that Octavia is familiar with. She picked up her bow and cello and was ready to give it a shot.
Fast paced and happy music started playing. It was better than she imagined. The cheerful tone and jumpy notes were a bit difficult to play, but years of practicing had made Octavia a master of the cello. She hit all the notes and slides, and performed the whole piece without any mistake at all.
“Well, that wasn't so bad. I guess I can perform this at a birthday or something,” Octavia said.
“Ummmm no Octavia, I felt like there was something missing.” Vinyl tilted her head to the side a little, holding one hoof up to her chin. “Like… the way you played wasn’t right.”
“The posture? Do you want me to hold the cello like a guitar and... what is it, rock and roll?”
“No no, it was your… attitude. You were like all serious and stuff.”
“Well YEAH, it’s a cello... a classical instrument. It is supposed to be treated with great care and a sincere attitude when being played.”
“Well that’s the problem. You are suppose to be happy when you play a happy song, ya know. Have some passion.”
“Passion?”
“Like this!”
Vinyl grabbed the cello from Octavia with her magic and also took the bow.
“CAREFUL! I bought these really nice strings and I only have two spare sets lefts, so please don’t snap them… wait,” Octavia paused, “you know how to play a cello, right?”
“Of course I do.” Vinyl’s words somehow made Octavia worry more. She watched carefully as Vinyl held the cello and bow in place, and was ready to save her cello from Vinyl at any time.
But as soon as Vinyl started playing, Octavia realized that her worries were unnecessary. Vinyl was holding the bow and cello in a semi-legitimate posture, and the notes that she was playing were actually on pitch. She played the melody and then suddenly started to shake her head to the rhythm of the song. She had a big and cheerful smile on her face, and as the song went on, she started to tap her back hoof to the rhythm as well. It looked as though Vinyl had gotten completely lost in the music. Her whole body was moving, her face filled with satisfaction and cheer, and it just looked like she was having the time of her life. Somehow, that suddenly made Octavia want to smile with happiness.
“How’s that?” Vinyl said as she finished up the song. “Didn’t expect me to know how to play a cello did you?”
“That was amazing Vinyl!” Octavia said, clapping her hooves. “I didn’t know a happy cello song can be so… happy.”
“Well that’s the thing. You have to love the music and you gotta show your audience that. Like, influence them with your emotions, bring them your own joy. It’s like being a DJ. You just hit ‘em with the beat and they jump to their hooves. Here, try it. I’m sure your fancy, classy filly friends have never even heard any of these types of songs.”
Octavia took back the cello and bow from Vinyl. Still having doubts about herself, Octavia wondered if she really had the skills that Vinyl had displayed, showing her emotion to the audience. She started playing putting on a big smile and everything, trying to copy what Vinyl had been doing. At first she felt a bit tedious, but then her smile turned into a real one because she realized how her awkward smile had made Vinyl giggle.
She started moving her head back and forth with the rhythm. Hooves tapping, forelegs stretching. A quick slide, and her entire body shifted as the note dropped. A series of quick, jumpy notes, and her hooves were tapping the ground like on drums. She put strength into her bow hoof, and powerful notes exploded from the cello. She felt as if the music had become one with her soul, and that was something that she had never felt before. She never knew expressing her own joyful emotions on stage could be so magical, and she knew she owed this feeling to Vinyl.
After being convinced by Vinyl, Octavia decided to put this new style of music into one of her performances and it caused a HUGE stir among the crowd. Word spread around town quickly. More and more ponies had heard about this unique style of Octavia, and soon Octavia found herself dealing with endless invitations to shows and fan mail. She had become quite busy with all this new public attention, so she had to spend a good portion of her free time composing music and practicing. Vinyl also had to work as a DJ to earn some bits so she didn't have to rely on Octavia for food, though she still had to come over about once a month to have dinner with Octavia. Octavia, on the other hand, didn't mind letting her friend mooch off of her every once in a while. After all, Vinyl was the one who inspired and helped her to gain her bigger audience. Octavia had saved up quite a fortune from all the shows she had been playing.
But still, Octavia thought that she needed to see Vinyl more often. It’s not like Octavia needed Vinyl's help to write her music or anything... It's just that Octavia hadn't seen Vinyl for a while and she missed her. She missed her a bit too much.
A strange thought struck Octavia, but she quickly shoved it to the back of her mind. "We are just normal friends, close, but... just good friends," Octavia said to herself, picked up her cello and bow, held them in place and started practicing.
But the thought came back to her, and her mind started to drift away from cello practice. "What if... what if she is actually in love with Vinyl? That can't be..." Octavia thought.
The notes she played were a bit off pitch, but she was too caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't even notice. "Vinyl is my best friend, and its only normal for friends to miss each other, but do other fillies have the same feeling?" Octavia asked herself. She remembered how much happiness she felt when she was with Vinyl, laughing and chatting. She remembered how disappointed and sorrowful she was when she had to wave goodbye to Vinyl. All the symptoms pointed to the same conclusion; they pointed somewhere that Octavia was a bit too scared to reach.
She stopped the bow and sighed. Her hoof was a bit tired from holding the bow, so she decided to give herself a short tea break. She stood in the hallway of her kitchen looking for her beloved tea pot, although her mind was still on the same subject trying to find a reason for her silly behavior other than love.
She filled the tea pot with water and put it on the stove. After a while, the water started boiling so she turned off the heat, put some tea leaves in a small cup, and lifted up the tea pot with her muzzle. However, still thinking about her relationship with Vinyl, Octavia failed to notice the little crack on the hoofle (Note: Something us humans call a ‘handle’) of the tea cup. And as she applied force, with the sound of broken glass, the hoofle broke off the tea pot and the pot fell onto the kitchen table. It immediately broke into pieces and hot, boiling water EXPLODED. Octavia took a step back out of instinct, but she wasn’t quick enough to dodge all the hot water. A large amount of boiling water ran down her front left leg and left a trail of painful red on her light, grey skin.
“AHH!”
Two hours later, Octavia was sitting on a bed in the hospital. Her neighbor had heard the broken glass and her scream. They rushed over and quickly took Octavia to the nearest hospital. After checking her in, Octavia gave them Vinyl’s number. They called Vinyl and she arrived in less than 5 minutes.
Vinyl smashed the door open, sprinted into the room and grabbed the doctor’s shirt just as he was about to leave with magic. “Is she going to be okay, doc?” she asked with anxiety.
“She is going to be FINE.” The doctor pushed Vinyl aside, stopping her magic and fixing his coat. “Luckily she was sent here in time, so I doubt if this little accident will even leave a scar. She just has to stay here for about a week, and then she will be back on stage in no time.”
With these convincing words, he left the room to watch over some of his other patients. Octavia’s neighbor had already left, so Octavia was in the room with Vinyl, and Vinyl only. That fact alone made Octavia blush slightly.
Vinyl took a seat at a nearby chair, took off her glasses and let out a long “Whew.” She said, “Okay, what the heck happened?”
“The tea pot broke when I was making tea.”
“Aww, I told you to replace that old thing. You could have really hurt yourself.”
Octavia wanted to yell something about the pot being classical and original, but her lips froze when her vision met Vinyl’s. Vinyl’s red eyes were filled with a mixture of anger and worry, and Octavia felt as if that vision was going to burn a hole in her heart.
“I am… sorry.” Octavia looked down at her front hoof, which was wrapped in bandages.
“You are usually pretty careful, are you sure you're okay? You sure you don’t have a fever or anything?”
“I am fine, thank you.”
Then Octavia’s brain froze. Vinyl stood up from the chair, walked towards Octavia, and put her muzzle on top of Octavia’s forehead. To Octavia, it was almost like a good night kiss except that it was not from her grandma, but from the best friend who she had mixed feeling towards.
They froze there for what felt like ages and when Vinyl finally moved away, Octavia’s face was unavoidably blushing so much that she felt like she was going to pass out.
“Your temperature seems fine though… but really Octavia, you need to be more careful. For a second there, I thought your career was going to end.”
Octavia felt slightly disappointed, though she didn't know why or what she was expecting. She couldn’t tell Vinyl either, she thought, because she couldn't expect Vinyl to accept the truth before she had admitted it to herself.
“Well, do you need anything? Like water or food? Or…” Vinyl paused, with a look on her face as if she was hiding a huge secret.
Octavia lifted her eyebrow.
“Some booze?” Vinyl took out a bottle of sweet apple fruit wine from behind her.
“Vinyl, this is a HOSPITAL! And no, I would not drink that. It does not quite fit my taste. I usually drink something less… childish.”
“Aw come on! It’s really good, I promise! Just give it a try. Besides, it’s only your hoof. You can drink some to lighten up your mood a bit,” Vinyl encouraged.
Thinking that Vinyl did have a good point, Octavia took the glass of dark-orange, yet see-through liquid from Vinyl. She lifted it in front of her eyes, looked at the texture of the liquid, and then put it under her muzzle to smell it.
Vinyl giggled, “Don’t worry Octavia, I didn’t poison it.”
“I am not suspecting you. I just enjoy tasting the alcohol, instead of just pouring it down like somepony I know,” Octavia said, glancing at Vinyl.
Vinyl was pouring apple wine into her mouth and she choked a bit at Octavia’s words. She lowered the bottle and said, “Hey! *cough* I can taste the wine, too.”
Octavia gave Vinyl a little smile and then held the glass to her lips to take a sip. The liquid was not what she usually drank, but it wasn’t as bad as she had imagined. Instead of the usual burning sensation, she felt a smooth and sweet flavor around her tongue.
Octavia turned to Vinyl and said, “Hmm, this isn’t half bad,” holding her glass of wine in her hooves and whirling it around.
“See, I told ya!” By this point, Vinyl was already done with her entire bottle. She threw the bottle into the garbage can and burped a little.
Octavia looked at Vinyl with disgust. Vinyl realized her look, narrowed her eyes, gave a sigh and said, “EXCUSE ME! There, happy?”
Octavia lifted her eyebrow. “Yes.” And she went back to tasting her drink.
Vinyl stayed and chatted for a little while longer, but it had begun to get dark so the nurse came in and told Vinyl that she had to leave. The nurse then sniffed and frowned. For a few seconds, Octavia thought that she was going to get in trouble for drinking, but it seemed the nurse thought that the alcohol smell was from medical procedures. Thankfully, the nurse left without suspicion.
Vinyl stood up and said, “Well, it’s time for me to go. Dun worry Octy, I will come back tomorrow.”
“Thanks Vinyl, that would really mean a lot to me,” Octavia said, sincerely.
“Don’t sweat it. Just remember; if someday I get sick, you gotta come and visit me too. And bring booze too.”
They both laughed, then Vinyl waved goodbye and walked out of the room. Octavia kept waving until Vinyl’s white body disappeared down the hallway and then her smile slowly faded.
With a little sigh, she decided to not bother thinking about Vinyl and her. She put out the light, placed her injured hoof carefully on top of the blanket so it wouldn't get crushed by her own weight, and then she slowly fell asleep.
The following morning, Octavia woke up with a mixture of aches and pains. The mattress of the hospital bed was too thin to protect her back from the bed frame, and unfortunately the bed was rock hard. She felt as if her spine was going to crack in half, and she barely had enough courage to turn herself around. Her bones made a very uncomforting "crack" sound as she did a little stretch, but then she felt a bit of relief.
She looked at the clock hanging on the hospital wall. It was only 6 am. Octavia sighed and laid down, trying to get some more sleep even though she knew she couldn't. She laid there for a few hours with random thoughts sailing across her mind and then she heard a light knock on the door.
A voice asked quietly, "Hey Octavia! You awake?"
"Yes. I would have been woken up by that anyways."
Vinyl quietly opened the door and gave a little nervous smile. She then walked into the room and closed the door behind her.
"How've you been?" asked Vinyl, as she sat down next to Octavia.
"I'm feeling great, thank you. I think I will be able to check out of the hospital in just a few days."
"Awww, don't be in such a big rush. You need some time off work, anyways."
"Yeah, to relax. Not to be stuck in a hospital with NOTHING to do," Octavia thought, watching Vinyl as she walked over to the window and opened the curtain. The sun was high up in the sky, and opening the curtain flooded the room with warm, bright light. Vinyl then slightly opened the glass window to let in some fresh morning air, which made Octavia feel quite refreshed.
"So, wanna go out for a walk? I can go talk to the Doc and get you a wheel chair."
"I don't see a reason for why not. Better than being stuck in this room all day, after all."
Vinyl smiled and left. She returned with a wheelchair shortly after. Octavia was fine standing on three hooves, so she left the bed and settled herself into the wheelchair. Vinyl then grabbed the hoofles and started pushing Octavia out of the room, towards the little garden behind the hospital.
It was around 9 am on a Saturday morning, so Ponyville was nice and quiet. There wasn't the usual hoof clopping or chatting like during the middle of the day; there were only the sounds of wind rustling the grass and the chattering of birds. There was also a chance to occasionally see a few beautiful butterflies resting on the tiny red flowers of the garden every once in a while. There were some that morning, but they fluttered away a bit at the sight of Vinyl and Octavia approaching.
"See, isn't this nice," Vinyl commented.
"Yeah, this is quite amazing," Octavia responded, taking a deep breath of the fresh air filled with the smell of grass and flowers.
They trotted through the flowers and around the fountain. Octavia then raised her hoof and pointed to a long bench on the side of the grass.
"Let's take a break there."
"All right." said Vinyl, as she pushed Octavia over to the bench. Vinyl turned Octavia around so that she could have a better view of the whole garden, and then settled herself down on the bench.
"Vinyl, thank you for all this work."
"No prob. You're not heavy at all. Much lighter than the DJ booth or my bass cannon."
"Your bass... what?"
"Nothing... So, how is... the weather?"
Octavia shot a puzzled look at Vinyl, who replied with a wide, forced smile.
"The weather is... lovely."
"Yeah, it's quite a nice day." Vinyl stared at two butterflies dancing around each other.
There was a moment of silence as they were both trying to figure out an appropriate thing to say.
"Vinyl..."
"Octavia..."
They both called each other's name at the same time. They fell silent for a short while, trying to understand what just happened, and then they both burst out into laughter.
"Wow... okay you go first, Octavia."
"No... you go first."
Vinyl took a deep breath.
"Well, ya see... we've been friends for what, eight years now?"
"Yeah..."
This didn't sound good. Octavia bit the bottom half of her lips, trying her best to hide her worry. She didn't want to be to possessive of Vinyl; after all, they were just friends. Octavia felt like if Vinyl had something that she wanted to go after, she should have the freedom to do so. However, Octavia still felt that whatever Vinyl was about to say was going to change everything forever, and that fact alone scared Octavia.
"Well, it's really hard to break it to you...but..."
Literally millions of thoughts crossed Octavia's mind. If Vinyl was this serious about something, what could it be? Did Vinyl notice Octavia's unusual behavior towards her, and want to break free from it? Had she found a new coltfriend and she was going to tell Octavia about it? Was she going to move out of Ponyville because of career or family reasons? Octavia felt like sorrow was beginning to clog up her chest, making it hard to breathe.
Vinyl sighed and said, "I... I don't know how to put this Octavia. I've been wanting to say this for a long time, but I was afraid of... hurting you."
Octavia felt the thin layer of glass breaking inside her chest. After all, mare-with-mare love was not right. "I guess this is the way it's supposed to be," thought Octavia.
"Don't worry Vinyl, it's all right. I think I know what you mean."
"You do?"
"Sure. Just go on and do as you wish, I will be fine with it."
Vinyl sprung from the bench and jumped into the air. She was filled with so much joy that she barely noticed the slight sadness in Octavia's smile. Vinyl bounced around the fountain in circles while Octavia sat in her wheelchair, smiling with her heart almost broken at the sight. Their love ended before it had even started. Octavia felt as if her heart had been ripped in two with the pain of losing a closest friend, and the sorrow of not having much of a choice. The worst part was that Vinyl didn't seem to have noticed Octavia's feelings at all.
Octavia was so caught up in her own depression that she didn't even notice that Vinyl had stopped jumping and now stood directly in front of her. All she recognized was that somepony, Vinyl most likely, had put a hoof underneath her jaw and lifted her head up a little bit. She looked up and saw Vinyl holding out a hoof, smiling back at her. Vinyl was oddly close, just inches away. Octavia was even able to feel the warmth from Vinyl's breath.
Then, Vinyl took off her glasses, closed her eyes, and moved forward. Her muzzle touched Octavia's, then she moved down and to the side a little and gave Octavia a gentle kiss on the cheek.
Octavia's brain went blank. It wasn't as if she was worried about what would happen next, it's just that her brain simply stopped working at this unexpected turn of events. She sat in her chair as Vinyl jumped back in place, looking at her shocked face, curiously.
"I thought you were cool with us being... more than just friends and stuff."
"Oh...I am... I was just a bit unprepared." Octavia replied, trying to hide her embarrassment.
Vinyl giggled. "You're so adorable when you're surprised." She moved closer again and gave Octavia a tight hug.
"AND when you're shy and pretending that you aren't embarrassed."
"Shut up, Vinyl.."
Octavia could not believe her eyes. She rubbed them again with her good hoof, and looked down at the invitation again.
Dear Ms. Octavia,
I sincerely hope that you have gotten better from your injures. I am writing on behalf of the guests attending my friend's, Fleur's, birthday party on June 6th. It would be a delight if you could be our guest of honor and perform some of your magnificent cello pieces for us. Please feel free to bring an acquaintance with you, as well.
Best wishes,
Fancy Pants
Fancy Pants was inviting her as a guest of honor? FANCY PANTS? He was probably the most important pony in Canterlot, and all of his party members were among the elite of the entire country. A pony would beg on her knees to even be allowed inside, and she, Octavia, was being invited as a guest of honor! Even if she couldn't play right now, the party wasn't for at least another two months, so she could totally make it!
"Octy? What's taking you so long? WHERE IS MY SANDWICH?"
"Vinyl, you would NOT believe this!" Octavia read the letter out loud to Vinyl.
To Octavia's surprise, Vinyl didn't sound surprised at all.
"Don't you get these kind of letters like, everyday now?" Vinyl asked.
"Yes, but this is Fancy Pants we're talking about!" Octavia exclaimed, "Do you even know who he is?"
"Uhh, sorry. I'm not into the... classy pony celebrities."
"He is the most famous pony in Canterlot, and his parties have always been a place of interest for other famous ponies. If I do well here, this could be the chance of my life!"
"That's wonderful, Octavia! Now, I'm kinda hungry. Can I have the sandwich you promised now?"
"Vinyl, when you said you wanted to come over, I thought YOU would be the one taking care of ME."
"Well, you are the host and I am the guest," Vinyl replied, her stomach groaning once more.
"Besides, you said you're great at cooking, right? I just can't stop thinking about the hay bacon with raspberries. Pleaasse?" said Vinyl, as she wiped a small string of saliva from the corner of her mouth.
Octavia passed her a napkin. "All right all right, I guess I can make some breakfast for us."
"YES! I love you, Octy." Vinyl jumped in the air for joy.
"I am sure you do. Oh, and can you come to Fancy Pants' party with me?"
Vinyl stopped, her eyes looking at Octavia with disbelief and curiosity. "You want me to do what now?"
"Can you be my guest and come to my performance at Fancy Pants' party?"
"I don't think I should be trusted at a fancy party like this..."
"Vinyl, this could be a once in a lifetime chance and, well, I was afraid that I might get a little nervous..." Octavia blushed a little.
"And you always cheer me up, so can you be my moral support?"
Vinyl giggled. "Wow, I just can't say 'no' to that face. All right, I'll go, no prob. I'll try to behave too, but you'll owe me."
"What do you want in return?"
Vinyl gave a devilish smile. "I haven't thought about it yet, but we'll see."
"And just one more thing. Would you mind keeping our... relationship... a secret? Just for now?"
"Wha...? Ohhh yeah, sure, I'll just act like a good friend."
"Thanks."
"No problem. Now, sandwich?"
"Gladly." Octavia smiled and trotted into the kitchen.
"If you need any help, just let me know! I want to learn how to cook like you do!" Vinyl yelled from the living room.
Octavia giggled. "Sure. Right now, I need help beating some eggs."
"Awww, I just started watching this new episode of Daring Do!"
"Well in that case, I'll just get the Cheerileeos...."
"WAIT I'M COMING!!! Ouch my nose... WAIT!"
(On June 4th)
Octavia checked herself in the mirror for the third time to make sure that her hair and bow tie were exactly the way she wanted them to be. After doing so, she ran to the living room and packed yet ANOTHER spare set of strings. She checked her cello bow to make sure that it wasn't frayed. Standing there, she thought for a moment, grabbed yet another replacement bow and placed it into her saddlebag.
Octavia heard hoofsteps stopping in front of her door and a knock.
"Octy, I'm here!"
Octavia went over and opened the door.
"Hi Vinyl... are you going to the party looking like THAT?"
Vinyl was in her usual attire, meaning just her purple DJ glasses.
"Yeah... what about it?"
"This is a party in CANTERLOT! You have to wear something delicate! Do you have any nice dresses or suits?"
"Do I look like the kind of pony who would have fancy clothes?"
"Urg!! Here..." Octavia grabbed Vinyl and pulled her into her bedroom. She threw open the door to her closet and started pulling out clothes.
"This won't do... it doesn't fit your mane well... How about this?" She picked out a long dress and held it up to Vinyl. Before Vinyl could say anything, Octavia threw it behind her. "The button doesn't match your eyes..."
"Octy..."
"This? Nooo, the ribbon is too long for you.."
"If you'd just..."
"How about this? Nah, this is too male for you, why do I even have it here?"
"OCTAVIA!" Vinyl yelled. Octavia stopped and looked at Vinyl with surprise.
"It's all right, don't panic." Vinyl gently pushed Octavia to the side and looked through the clothes. She then picked out a blue bow tie and put it around her neck.
"See? Perfect."
Octavia rammed her hoof into her own face."Vinyl, it doesn't work that way."
"What? That's how YOU are dressing!"
"Yes, but I am performing! Besides," she pointed a hoof at her trunk that looked like it would explode at any time because it was so full, "I have an extra dress for the party when I am not performing. You should too, in case your first dress gets dirty."
Vinyl sighed, "Then how about this one?" Vinyl took out another dress and displayed it over herself.
Octavia looked around Vinyl. The dress's color fit Vinyl's mane and tail perfectly, and the red ribbon around the waist was perfect.
"YES!!! This is perfect, Vinyl."
"It feels a bit... I don't know, I never wear anything this long."
"Sorry Vinyl, this will have to do for now. Don't worry, its only for a day."
"The things I will do for you, Octy." Vinyl giggled. "Imagine my band mates seeing me in this. Oh boy, their faces would be priceless."
"Vinyl, what are you talking about? You look AMAZING in that dress!"
Vinyl smiled. "I'll take your word for it. Now, do you need help packing up?"
Octavia looked around the room and then ran to her luggage again. Vinyl followed and watched her as she browsed through her stuff.
"You're bringing three bows?"
"Yeah, in case one breaks"
"But the one you are using is perfectly fine!"
"What if it got broken on the train?"
Vinyl face hoofed. "You realize that I am not going to help you carry any of this, right?"
"Awww Vinyl, I thought you loved me."
"Yes, but twelve sets of extra strings seems unnecessary to me."
"BUT WHAT IF..."
"NO, two is enough. Go take a break. I will help you with this."
Octavia looked at Vinyl with distrust.
"Octavia, I am a musician too. Just chill, I got this."
"All right then, Vinyl... I'll trust you." Octavia walked into the kitchen. Deciding that she should probably take a break, she opened the fridge.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Octavia screamed.
"VINYL!" Octavia ran into the living room, staring Vinyl in the face, "Where... where did you get that strawberry popsicle from?"
Vinyl turned around. She was holding up the strawberry popsicle in the air with magic. She had red marks around her lips and the popsicle was almost gone.
"From your fridge, Octavia. I thought you were cool with me taking some of your food."
"Yes, but that was the last one! And it was my favorite flavor, too..." Octavia said.
"Well... you really want to taste it right...?"
Octavia sighed, "It's all right. I guess I'll have to do with blueberry for now..."
Before she could finish her sentence, Vinyl walked up and grabbed Octavia with her hooves. She pulled Octavia's face next to hers and stretched her neck so her muzzle was at the same height as Octavia's. Moving closer, she kissed Octavia on the lips.
Octavia tasted the strawberry from Vinyl's lips, and she just stood there and froze up like a popsicle.
"There, now go watch TV or something." Vinyl nudged Octavia out of the room. "I've still got work to do, packing up and stuff."
Vinyl was right. The trip to Canterlot was smooth and everything went as planned. Octavia's cello remained unscratched and beautiful, and none of her cello bows were broken or bent. She ran her hooves along the curved edge of her cello, took in a deep breath and practiced a little. When she felt like her hooves were warmed up and ready to go, she decided to sit down and wait for the call which came much sooner than she expected.
"Octavia, you're up next. Please get ready."
Octavia nodded. Picking up her cello and bow, she stood just behind the proscenium arch, right next to the heavy red curtains of the stage. Feeling a little nervous, she felt like her hooves were getting a little slippery, and she wiped them off on her coat.
"And now, fillies and gentlecolts, the mare you have been waiting for, Octavia!"
Octavia was greeted immediately with a mixture of chattering and applause as she walked to the center of the stage into the spotlight on the curtain. Although she was trying to act calm and professional, her heart was still beating like drum. Out of the corner of her eye, she took a quick look over the audience. She saw Fancy Pants sitting at the front table and Fleur sitting right next to him. It looked like they were chatting with their guests and enjoying the food, but they seemed to barely be paying any attention to the performance. Octavia felt a bit relaxed, but also some disappointment. She set up her cello and held the cello bow in place. She turned to the audience and was ready to start her performance. However, at that instant, she noticed a certain pony sitting at a table quite far away from the stage. Her face was mostly covered in huge, over-sized glasses, and her lips were bent into a thin, judgmental shape. She had a notebook flipped open on the table, and a set of ink and quills next to it.
It was the Judgy Jam, the reporter for the Pony Times magazine. She was a famous journalist, and had a well known reputation for being extremely critical. Her words were harsh and sometimes rude, and had come to be known as something of a saber that could slash anypony's career in half. And she was right here looking at Octavia, ready to turn any mistake into an article that would end Octavia's performance career forever!
Octavia immediately started sweating. She felt her bow slowly slipping out of her sweaty hooves, and suddenly felt extreme unease and nervousness. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and placed her bow on the string. Octavia started with a rather slow, classical piece, and she had been practicing it for years. She was so familiar with it that she could probably play it in her sleep. But tonight, she felt like it had become so unfamiliar. Every position of her left hoof felt unnatural and unusual, and she had to concentrate extremely hard on her hoof's positioning to make sure that she didn't mess up. However, being as nervous as she was, she eventually played a wrong note. The song came to a stop, and the entire dining hall quieted down.
Octavia could feel everypony's eyes gazing upon her with questions and disbelief. She gave a little bow to apologize, and decided to start another piece.
"It's okay Octavia, just pretend like it's just an everyday performance... you can still save this." Octavia told herself, but she started to feel her body shaking. She tried to control it, but it was no use. She was just simply too nervous to play.
"Ahem!" Octavia heard a loud fake cough. She looked up and saw Judgy Jam covering her mouth with her hoof. She had taken off the glasses, and her blue eyes were shining with criticism. Her hoof was holding the quill, and she quickly jotted something down on the notebook and sighed.
Octavia felt like her soul was knocked out of her skull. Whatever Jam just wrote down on that piece of paper couldn't be good. It was going be in the Pony Times, and it would probably be enough to ruin her whole career. She was so caught up in her depressing thoughts that she forgot to start playing again.
Then suddenly, she heard a familiar voice calling her name. Octavia looked up and saw Vinyl sitting at a table in the second row. Everypony was looking at Vinyl as if she was some kind of strange monster, but Vinyl didn't seem to notice it. In fact, she was sitting in such an ungraceful posture, that a few ponies around her had already moved further away. Vinyl looked at Octavia, her lips curving upwards into a big, encouraging smile.
"Come on Octavia, light this place up a bit!"
It was kind of a rude thing to say to a performer, but Octavia didn't feel offended at all. In fact, she suddenly felt calm. Vinyl's voice somehow made Octavia feel safe. No. It wasn't the words that she spoke. It was Vinyl's presence, the fact that Vinyl was right there with her. Octavia shook her head a little and decided to not think about Judgy Jam's critique right now, but only think about the next song. She picked up the bow once again, took in a deep breath, and started playing a song she and Vinyl had come up with together.
Unlike other classical party music, the melody was quite fast paced. Instead of the usual slow and clam flow, Octavia's song was jumpy and bright. It was like a filly running under the sun, chasing butterflies. There were questions being asked among the audience, but Octavia didn't care. In fact, she barely heard the voices of others. She was putting all of her thoughts, all of her attention, all of her heart into the music she was producing at that moment. She tightly shut her eyes together and let her hooves move of their own freewill. She remembered all the times she spent together with Vinyl, and her hooves jumped at the joyous thoughts. Notes sprung from the cello strings like playful children, and the audience slowly fell into sync with the music. Ponies started nodding to the rhythm of the music, and the sound of chattering disappeared. Ponies stopped talking and everypony turned their attention to Octavia, who didn't seem to notice at all.
Octavia felt the emotions flowing inside her like a busy river. She started tapping her feet and shifting her weight back and forth to the rhythm. Her hair flew up in the air and swung to the sides as she played. It almost looked like she was dancing with the cello, and it was stunningly beautiful.
Octavia froze in place as the last note echoed around the room. She removed the bow from the strings and looked up. To her surprise, there was no sound. Octaiva was confused. Even if her style had not been accepted, the Canterlot ponies should still remember the basic respects given to a musician. They should have at least quietly stamped their hooves on the ground, even though it might have come with a mixture of criticism. However, there was no sound. It was completely quiet.
Octavia curiously looked up. She saw everypony staring at her with their jaws opened. Their faces were filled with shock. Even Fancy Pants and Fleur were looking at the stage, speechless.
"YEAHHH! GO OCTAVIA!!! THAT WAS AMAZING!! WHOOOOOO!!!!"
It was Vinyl's voice. She stood ONTO the chair and was clapping her hooves in the air, yelling. Her voice seemed to have woken up the audiences, who seemed to almost be dreaming. Applause rose up into the air like fireworks. Octavia looked up, but she wasn't paying attention to the audience. She was looking calmly at Vinyl, who gave her a big smile and another long "WHOOOOO!"
Octavia smiled and left the stage. Her bow held tight, her steps steady, and her mind filled with joy.
After an hour or so, Octavia had changed into her party suit. There was a jazz band on stage, and Octavia was finally able to settle down to enjoy the food and party like any other pony. She was sitting and chatting with Vinyl at a table far away from center stage, giggling from time to time.
"Did you see the look on their faces? It was all like..." Vinyl made an over dramatized, shocked face, and they both burst out into laughter.
“Thanks Vinyl, I was really nervous… and you really helped back there.”
“Hey, I guess I was useful after all, huh?” Vinyl laughed as she sat back and poured herself another glass of beer. The small glass was soon filled, and white bubbles started to flow down the side, but Vinyl didn’t seem to notice.
“Hey Vinyl! Are you drunk already?”
“Huh? Nah, no no. I’m all…” Vinyl’s words were cut off by her burp, “good.”
Octavia didn’t try to hide her disgust. She threw a napkin at Vinyl.
“Geez, you could at least TRY to act civilized. I don’t want to be seen with you by Judgy Jam or any other pony.”
“Chill out Octavia, it’s a party!”
“This is different, Vinyl. I would really appreciate it if you just cut back a little. You know how you can get when you are drunk.”
Vinyl grunted, putting down the drink, “All right all right… geez, you’re so bossy.”
“Ahem!” A sudden loud cough interrupted their conversation. Octavia looked over and immediately froze. It was Judgy Jam. She had her notebooks open and a quill in her hooves. She looked at Vinyl as if she was some kind of disobedient pet and said, “Dear Octavia, this is…?”
“Oh, she… she is my friend, here to watch my performance,” said Octavia.
“Yo sup.” said Vinyl as she laid back in her chair.
Judgy Jam frowned at Vinyl’s attitude and shot her a very uncomfortable look. However, to Octavia’s great comfort, she ignored Vinyl and turned back to Octavia.
“So, I have a few things I would like to know. Would you mind?”
“No, of course not. Please have a seat.” Octavia pulled out another chair at the side of the table. This was probably one of the most important interviews of her life, so she was so concentrated on Judgy Jam that she didn’t notice that the room had suddenly gone quiet. Everypony’s attention had shifted to Octavia and Vinyl.
“So, how long have you been playing the cello?”
“As long as I can remember… maybe since I was two?”
“That is quite impressive. Tell me, Octavia. What drives you to this new... style of classical music?”
“Well… a great friend of mine inspired me. She is an amazing musician, and I thought I could try something a little different.”
“Huh… interesting, interesting… Tell me a little more about this special friend of yours.”
“Well…”
Vinyl suddenly spoke up, “Here, Octavia I got this.” Judgy Jam turned to her, raising one of her eyebrows.
“Yep, that’s me. Vinyl,” Vinyl said with pride. She placed one of her hoofs in front of her chest as if she was receiving a medal.
“Excuse me?” replied Judgy Jam.
“Well you see, we’ve been like the best friends for years. One day, I was just chilling at her place and we decided to try something new together.”
Judgy Jam’s face was lit up with interest. She moved a little closer and said, “Tell me. How close are you girls, really?”
Before Octavia could stop her, Vinyl said, “Oh we are like lovers.”
The entire room was again quiet after a series of loud gasps. Everypony’s eyes were flashing with disbelief and disgust.
Judgy Jam’s jaw dropped, her face frozen in a state of shock. Then suddenly she remembered what she was doing. Quickly jotting something down on her notebook, she gave Octavia a nasty look.
“Hmmm, I have always thought that your style was a bit… gay.” She left with these words and a scary smile.
Octavia couldn’t believe what just happened. The awkward silence was killing her, so she suddenly stood up, knocked over the chair she was sitting in and sprinted out of the room.
“Octavia…wait!” Vinyl suddenly realized what she had just did. The beer bottle she had been holding dropped from her hooves and shattered on the floor. She quickly ran after Octavia.
There was a huge garden behind the dining hall. Vinyl caught a glimpse of Octavia’s tail, and she followed it. Finally, she saw Octavia sitting on a bench next to an artificial lake. She curled up in a small ball, burying her face between her arms and knees.
Octavia heard Vinyl’s hoof steps and raised her head.
“Octy…”
But before Vinyl could apologize, Octavia’s anger exploded. Her gray face turned scarily pale.
“IF ONLY YOU DIDN’T COME ALONG! NOW LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID!”
Vinyl was shocked at the words. She stopped dead in her tracks, looking at Octavia. She had never seen Octavia this angry before. Not even the time she had accidently spilled coffee on Octavia's cello had caused this reaction.
“Look Octy, I am really sorry…”
“Sorry?” Octavia gave a cold smile,. “Oh yeah, I am sorry, and everything is going to be all right. Judgy Jam is not going to write the fact that I am homosexual into the next edition of Pony Times, and my career will be magically saved.”
“I was just…”
“Do you even know how much this meant to me? Do you have any idea what you just did? You just announced our relationship to a room full of at least a hundred high-class ponies! You promised that you would keep it a secret!”
“Octavia, just…”
“You’ve always been so… insensitive!” Octavia said, burying her face into her arms again. Vinyl could only hear her muffled voice, something about “her career."
Vinyl sighed and sat down next to Octavia. She held out her hoof, trying to hug Octavia, but Octavia swung her own hoof and slapped Vinyl’s arm out of the way.
“Do you want to add more material for Judgy Jam? Live action?”
“Ouch Octavia, that really hurt. Look, I am sorry. It’s all my fault, but you are so good at the cello, other ponies won’t even care who you are in love with…”
Octavia looked at her with disbelief, her purple irises burning with the flames of anger. “Are you kidding me? OF COURSE they will! Do you even know how the upper society thinks of this? With a rumor like this, I will never be able to perform anywhere important ever again!”
“Well, I would highly doubt that,” said a colt’s voice from behind them. Octavia and Vinyl turned around.
Fancy Pants was standing on the little path to the bench.
Vinyl moved to the side so she was further away from Octavia, but Fancy Pants laughed and said, “Please, I am not such a homophobic.”
Octavia turned away and said, “I am so sorry Fancypants. I really didn’t mean to cause such a commotion back there.”
“No no, I should be the one apologizing.” Fancypants walked up and bowed. “I am sorry that my guest caused you trouble. Please accept my apology.”
Octavia seem shocked. “Oh… it’s fine really…”
Fancypants shook his head, “No it's not. It was wrong of her to ask such personal question in public. Here, I will be hosting another party in Fillydelphia. Would you like to be my guest and perform your marvelous music again? It would be the least I could do to make it up to you.”
“Fancypants… I don’t know what to say… This is so generous of you… But are you sure it’s all right? I mean… won’t my presence hurt your reputation?”
Fancypants laughed, “Aha, that’s silly talk. Pony Times is famous for making up rumors about famous ponies. As long as you deny the fact and don’t get caught with dear Ms. Scratch, others won’t mind so much.”
Octavia looked at Vinyl.
“Not to be seen with her? Does that mean we have to part?”
“I am afraid so, dear Octavia. It’s merely a request, however. It’s completely up to you, if you want to be my guest or not.”
Fancypants bowed once again. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go look after my other guests. Please, let me know when you’ve made your decision.” With these words, Fancypants left Octavia and Vinyl alone.
Octavia sat there silent for a while. She turned to Vinyl and began to say, “Vin-”
However, Vinyl cut her off immediately, “Are you really still thinking about it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s obvious isn’t it? You've still got a shot! Whatcha waiting for?”
Octavia looked down at the ground. “But that means I have to leave you…”
Vinyl shrugged, “Well, I don’t mind really…well I mean yeah, I want to be with you too, but haven’t you always dreamed about being a cellist?”
“Yeah, but…”
“Well then get at it. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. Pinkie Pie throws a party like once a week, and I could always get paid to be a DJ there. I have no problem feeding myself.”
Octavia’s voice became lower as she spoke, “But… I don’t want to just leave you.”
Vinyl held out her hooves and hugged Octavia tight. “It’s all right, I can wait.”
Octavia looked at Vinyl with surprise.
“I’ll wait in Ponyville. I'll wait until you’ve finished your dream. Don’t worry too much about me. Do what you want to do and don’t give any bucks to other ponies who try to stand in your way.” Vinyl gave a gentle smile that warmed Octavia’s heart “I will always be there for you, anytime you want to come back.”
Octavia felt tears flowing down her cheeks. She moved closer and hugged Vinyl tight. Leaning on Vinyl, they shared their emotions in the embrace.
“Thank you Vinyl.”
“No prob Octavia, just don’t wipe your nose on my coat.”
(Author's note: I sincerely apologize for the long gap. I had been extremely busy with moving and college. The good news is that i finally settled down and have time to finish this fic that had been going on for over a year. One thing tho, my editor is quite busy so there are probaby a bazillion grammar/spelling issues. I apologize beforehoof D:)
Octavia left Vinyl. She had doubted herself about if this was the right thing to do, but she just couldn't give up another chance to be popular again. It was everything that she had dreamed about.
Fancy Pants’ party was yet another success. Even though she got a bit nervous, the overall performance was all right and she caused quite a stir. When asked about the relationship between her and Vinyl, she smiled as if she was listening to a joke. Her acting was perfect, and everypony thought that Judgy Jam simply wrote yet another made up piece, and Octavia’s reputation was saved.
She wrote to Vinyl about her new success. Fancy Pants had decided to make a long term contract with Octavia, and several other famous film producers had already asked Octavia numerous times about if she could write a piece for their movie. Octavia felt a bit sorry about leaving Vinyl alone in Ponyville, but then she remembered that unlike her, Vinyl actually had a lot of friends besides her. Feeling a bit relieved but also a little disappointed at the same time, Octavia told Vinyl that she would be staying in Fillydelphia for a bit longer, but they will keep in touch.
Octavia got the Vinyl’s return in just a few days. She tore open the letter and found a photo of Vinyl. She was raising a hoof in midair, smiling. On the bottom there was Vinyl’s hand writing, “Good job sis, go show ‘em what you are made of.”
Octavia smiled, feeling relieved that Vinyl could understand.
Everything was going just as expected. She was accepted to a well-known classical orchestra, and soon she had been recognized as a valuable player. She had her own songs, her own solos, and even shows that feature herself. She would always write to Vinyl about her success and how much she misses Ponyville, and Vinyl would always encouraged her to keep developing what she was, and reassure Octavia that she was still single. Octavia giggled at her words, but inside she was relieved.
Soon without even noticing it, Octavia had left Vinyl for half a year. Everypony had recognized Octavia as an innovator by then, and Octavia’s dream had come true. She was the type of pony everypony had known.
But slowly Octavia felt like something had went missing. At first she was able to write new piece almost every day, and she was able to express her feelings. But later she found it difficult to come up with new idea. She sat there for hours trying to come up with a new piece, but it was more difficult than she had imagined.
Was it because she had become old? Octavia looked at herself in the mirror. She checked her mane and hooves. They were still smooth and steady. She looked around her body and saw no wrinkles. She was still Octavia, the most talented cello player ever.
She had to play the music she wrote long time ago. At first people were fine with it, but soon they grow bored. It was difficult to entertain a group of high class ponies with very refined taste, and Octavia felt like her performances had become less popular. Occasionally she would hear saying like “she was running out of ideas” or “I guess she was just lucky”, and usually her face would turn to a bright red from anger and shame. However, she just wasn’t able to write another happy piece.
After another half a year, Octavia felt like herself turning into her old self again. Not able to play any new music, she had to play more classical pieces, which was smooth and calm. It was socially accepted, but ponies were no longer crazy for her shows. She had withdrawn from the front of the newspaper, from the cover of the magazine, and she became the same as pretty much any other cello playing pony.
Maybe Vinyl can help, Octavia thought. She told Vinyl about her struggle, and how she couldn’t come up with anything. She got the reply from Vinyl soon as usual, but when she looked at the letter, she was a bit stunned.
It was still Vinyl’s writing, but there was no photo. There was only a short letter which read, “Don’t give up Octavia, you can do it!”
It was encouraging words, but Octavia felt like something wasn’t right. She wasn’t sure what, but she found it necessary to give Vinyl a call. Octavia preferred writing because it was more her style, but she remembered Vinyl’s phone number just in case. She nervously picked up the phone and dialed.
Soon the other end answered.
“Hello?” Octavia said.
“Hi, this is DJ center, may I help you?” It was some pony else’s voice.
“Hi, I am looking for Vinyl Scratch.”
“Excuse me?”
The other pony sounded surprised.
“I am looking for Vinyl Scratch.”
The other end of the phone fell silent. Octavia could hear talking in the background, but the words were too distant to distinguish.
A sudden feeling had caught onto Octavia’s heart.
“Hello?”
“I am sorry, but Vinyl had… moved… away.”
“She moved?”
“Yeah, she urg… moved yesterday, what luck huh.” The pony gave a nervous chuckle.
“Any way, she told me that if a pony named Octavia wanted to talk to her, just urg… write to this new address of hers.”
“How do you know that I am Octavia?”
Octavia heard the other pony gasp.
“Please, tell me the truth.”
“Urg Mrs. Octaiva… bzzzzzz… I can’t hear you very well… we are breaking up… bzzzzzz” The phone got disconnected right away. Octavia held onto the metal hoofle for a while, thinking about what just happened. What was the other pony hiding? How did she know that she was Octavia?
Octavia put down the phone and trotted around the room, thinking. Vinyl should be fine, she wrote to me just days ago.
Octavia checked her schedule. She had an upcoming performance on Thursday, but Octavia decided to turn it down. In fact, Octavia cleared her schedule so she would have about 15 days to spare. She then packed her trunk and her beloved cello, and booked a ticket to Ponyville.
It had been a year, Octavia thought. It should be time to visit Vinyl again. Besides, she needed a break from all the work anyway. Knowing Vinyl for so long, Octavia knew that they would have some quality time together, and maybe she would be inspired again to create some new songs.
In just a few days, Octavia was standing at the sign that says “Welcome to Ponyville”. She looked around. Even though there were new buildings, she could still recognize most of the town. The town center, the hospital, and the school that she went to together with Vinyl… everything was so familiar. Octavia started walking towards Vinyl’s place.
But suddenly, an orange pony blocked her way. She looked up and saw good old Applejack, smiling at her.
“Hey there partner! Long time no see huh?”
“It has been quite a while my friend.” Octavia held out a hoof, “How have you been?”
“Reeeeal good!” Applejack grabbed Octavia’s hoof and shook so hard that Octavia felt her entire body lifted into the air and back down. “So you here to visit again?”
“Why yes…”
“Then this way, let me give you a tour!”
“Actually…”
“Ah don’t worry we know you are a big shot now. But here in Ponyville, you are still the good old Octavia!”
Applejack pushed Octavia forward before she could say anything. They went straight for the sweet apple farm.
“This is the sweet apple farm. We have the best apples around Equestria. There are my families Applebloom, Granny Smith, Big Mac…”
Applejack continued as she kept stuffing apple products down Octavia’s throat. There were apple, apple pies, apple cider, apple tarts… Soon Octavia’s mouth was so full that she was afraid of saying anything, or everything would just explode like a volcano.
“Awww look at you, I knew our food was good. Why don’t you stay at our place over night? We’ll make you some more and better food!” Applejack gave a big smile.
It took Octavia a few minutes to swallow everything inside her mouth. She wiped her lips and said, “I am very thankful for your generosity, but I have to…”
“Oh sorry, the tour, right!” Applejack cut her off again, and then dragged her to the library. She knocked on the door and a baby dragon answered the door. Spike opened the door and said, “Hi applejack… GASP!”
He quickly covered his mouth in shock as he saw Octavia.
“Sorry, need to urg… clean the room, gotta go, I’ll fetch Twilight real quick.” Spike added, and he sprinted into the room.
“Look Applejack, I lived here for five years so it’s really uncess…”
“Hi!” Twilight’s voice interrupted Octavia, “Octavia! Longtime no see. How have you been…”
“I have been all…”
“That’s fantastic. Here I’ve got something that you absolutely have to see before you do anything else!” Twilight grabbed Octavia and pulled her into the library before she could refuse. Twilight then quickly levitated a huge book from the shelf with her magic and placed it in front of Octavia, turning it to a page with the portrait of a cello.
“I found this article about cello, and there are so many thing that I don’t understand.”
“Urg, excuse me?”
“For example ummmm…” Twilight looked at the picture, “What is this… part?”
Octavia narrowed her eyes, “That is a bow, Twilight.”
“Oh really? You don’t… say…” Twilight gave a nervous chuckle.
“Well then, I must go…”
“WAIT! What is a bow made of?”
“Wood and pony tails. The tip was made of metal to make sure it doesn’t fall apart. Now if you’ll excuse me…”
“WAIT!!!”
Octavia turned to Twilight.
“Yes?”
“Urg, oh! Can I do a scientifically analysis on your brain when you play the cello? I had always been curious about how musician’s mind works.”
“I am sorry Twilight I really have to…”
“PLEASE?” Twilight opened her eyes up wide and curled her lips upwards like a puppy. Octavia sighed.
“All right, fine, but please make it quick.”
“YES! THANK YOU Octavia!” Twilight quickly grabbed Octavia and pulled her downstairs into her basement. There were some funky machine there, and a lot of wires ran across the entire room.
“Here, put this on.” Twilight picked up a metal hat with wires going through it on top of Octavia’s head. Then she took Octavia and made her sit inside a metal chair. Twilight then pushed a button on a control panel nearby, and two metal bars came out from the side and cuffed Octavia.
“Twilight, this felt a bit strange. I cannot move at all.”
“Good.” Twilight said, and then she quickly realized what she just said.
“Excuse me?”
“Urg, so your hooves would not be injured during the…experiment.”
Octavia felt a bit scared. She have heard about Twilight and her crazy experiments, and she sensed that something bad was going to happen.
But Twilight simply gave another nervous chuckle and said, “Shush I forgot something upstairs. I will be right back.” And then with a puff and a purple light, she teleported out of the room, leaving Octavia cuffed alone in the basement.
This is extremely uncomfortable and just weird. Octavia wanted to shout for help, but she heard a loud “puff” above her head and hoofsteps, so she decided to quiet down and listen for a while.
It was Twilight and her friends. Even though Octavia wasn’t a very close friend of theirs, they had known each other for quite a while. Twilight started talking. As a professional musician, Octavia had great hearing. Even though she lowered her voice and the ceiling was quite thick, Octavia could hear what Twilight was talking about.
“Girls! What do we do? Octavia is here?”
“WHAT?” Rarity shouted, but then it sounded like her muzzle was stuff with something.
“Shush Rairy, she is right here under this library. I told her I have to experiment on some science stuff and I will have to go back in a sec. Now what do we do?”
“Well what is she doing here? Isn’t she still a bit shot in Canterlot or wherever?” Spike said.
“No... well, yes, but she came back to visit Vinyl.”
Then everypony gasped.
“You have no idea how hard it was to get her to come here. I ain’t good at lying.” Applejack said.
“She called a few days ago, I was just glad I was able to come up with something to hide it. I told her that Vinyl had moved away.” Pinkie said.
“But, she will find out about the truth someday.” Rainbow Dash said, “We can’t hide it forever. We should just let her know.”
“No! That’s not what Vinyl told us to do.” Twilight said, “We’ll have to keep her busy. She can’t stay here for too long, being such an important pony and all. We’ll just have to keep distracting her until she had to leave for some other performance.”
“Well… umm… but, isn’t that unfair for Octavia? I mean, Vinyl was like her best friend.”
“I know, Fluttershy.” Twilight sighed and said, “But we all promised Vinyl to keep it a secret.”
A secret? Vinyl is keeping secrets? From her? Octavia felt a bit light headed. What could Vinyl be hiding? Could she have… fallen in love with another pony?
Then it all makes sense. Vinyl didn’t want to break it to Octavia, so she decided to keep it a secret from her. The reason her letters had become more and more simple, must have been because she had lost interest. Maybe she had already gotten bored by Octavia’s letters.
“Well, so what should we do?” Applejack asked.
Twilight sighed, “I have an idea. Pinkie, you know everypony around here. Make sure to tell everyone about this and tell them to not slip a word to Octavia.”
“Go it Twilight. Whoo! You know what could be fun? A welcome back party for little Octavia!”
“First of all Pinkie, Octavia doesn’t seem like the type of pony who would enjoy your parties. Secondly, she is two years older than you are.”
“But!”
“Yadi Yali Yada, anyway. Spike, can you write a letter from Vinyl’s perspective, telling Octavia that she had to move away for an important… DJ show?”
“On it!” The little dragon answered and ran away. Octavia could hear his footsteps disappearing into another room.
“Rainbow and Fluttershy, can you girls talk to whoever is in charge of the weather so it will rain for at least a week? In fact, try to make it a storm if possible.”
“Ehhh I don’t know Twilight… it’s kind of hard to change the weather plans.”
“Spike! Spike?”
The little dragon ran back into the room.
“Yes Twilight?”
“Take a letter. I will write the letter to explain the reason behind this. I am sure they will understand.”
“Got it!”
After a short while Twilight was done talking.
“And… Done!” Spike repeated after Twilight and said.
“Now, Rarity, how many dresses do you have?”
“How many? Ummmm…” Rarity said, “Enough to occupy her for two days, I’d say.” She giggled after wards.
“Great. Applejack, you know where her cello is, right?”
“Urg, yes Twi, but what…”
“Hide it.”
“Twi I don’t think…”
“She is a world famous cellist. To her the cello must be more important than anything else. If you could hide it somewhere she couldn’t find, then she would have to spend all of the time she had looking for it instead of finding Vinyl.”
“Twi I am not sure this is such a good idea.”
“Ummmm in fact… Rainbow, could you put it somewhere safe in cloud scale?”
“I can do it in ten seconds, FLAT.”
“Twi, I don’t think we should…”
“Well then, you girls get to work. I will keep distracting her.”
“Twilight!” Applejack said loudly, but everypony else shushed her.
“Quiet Applejack! We can’t let her know about this, remember?” Twilight said.
“Ahem, sorry. But Twilight, I…”
“You pinkie promised. We all did, to Vinyl. Now move along, I need to get back before she got suspicious.” Twilight quickly trotted away, and then Octavia heard the door to the basement opening.
Twilight came in. She was holding a piece of metal in front of her with her magic. She placed the metal down on the control panel and turned to Octavia, “Sorry I took such a long time. I had a crazy study night yesterday and everything was just a mess.”
“Huh, you don’t… say.” Octavia said.
Twilight gave a forced smile.
“Well, now it’s time to start. Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll play you some music, and this machine right here will record your thoughts. I will see if there is a difference from your reaction when you hear good music and bad music.”
Octavia decided to play along and try to get to the bottom of this.
“That sounds wonderful.”
“All right, let’s start with this… Ah, Rebuck Black, Friday. I’ve heard this is a terrible piece.”
“Really.”
“Well, here goes. Please focus on the music.”
The music started playing, and soon Octavia felt like her head is going to explode,
“What is this Twilight?”
“Well, this is Friday by…”
“No, no, no! Such… abomination! The rhythm is repeating endlessly and pointless, the chords are cheap and incomplete, and the lyrics… Urg, could it be any more stupid? Please turn it off. It’s giving me a headache.”
Twilight turned off the machine and the voice of the annoying filly disappeared.
“Well, now let’s start on something more…”
“Twilight, I thought you were going to test on me when I play my cello.”
“Oh! Yeah, about that…” Twilight said, biting her bottom lips, “Well, I figured that we should change the plan a bit…”
“Oh really? And it was because?”
“Well… you see, I think…”
“That I can’t play the cello if you girls hide it away, right?”
Twilight’s eyes opened up wide, her voice shaking.
“No Octavia, what are you talking about?”
“I am talking about you telling Rainbow Dash to hide my cello inside Cloudscale. For Christ’s sake Twilight, I am a musician. I have good ears.”
“Oh no I was talking about the… other cello, you know it’s funny there is actually another pony called ‘Octavia’ who lives here.”
“Uh huh.”
“And she is a cellist too, what luck huh? He-heh.”
“Sure.”
“And I was just talking about pranking her by hiding her cello… you know, she loves pranks so yeah.”
“Oh…” Octavia exclaimed.
“Yep, that’s my story and I am sticking to it.” Twilight raised her head and said.
“So when will I get the chance to meet her?”
“Urg… well, she is out of town right now Heh… but she left her spare cello in her house so we decided to hide it…”
Octavia looked at her.
“Yeah any way…”
“Twilight, you knew she didn’t believe a word you said, right?”
Applejack was standing at the entrance to the basement.
“What… Applejack? What are you doing here?”
“Sorry Twilight, but I just can’t keep up with this anymore. I think little Octavia deserve the truth.”
“But what about Vinyl…”
“The fact that Octavia came back to visit was enough, Twilight. I think we can tell the girls to come back now. We should pay Vinyl a visit tomorrow, together.”
Twilight sighed. She pressed a button on the panel and released Octavia. Applejack walked up and patted Octavia on the head.
“Thank you, Applejack.”
“It’s okay. We’ll bring you to her, tomorrow.”
Octavia had always had trouble falling asleep, but that night her insomnia was acting worse than ever. She kept rolling around in bed, having all kinds of random thoughts and guesses about Vinyl. Who is the other pony? Vinyl must be sorry. She promised Octavia that she would wait for her, but she didn’t. Octavia felt cheated on, but on the other hoof she felt she didn’t have a reason good enough to stop Vinyl. She was the one who abandoned her and went on with her own career. Octavia chose her own dream over Vinyl, which is unfair even though Vinyl might have accidently crashed Octavia’s reputation once.
Come to think of it, it wasn’t even Vinyl’s fault. She did say that she was not comfortable with the high class parties, and she did really tried to stay on her best behavior that night. When the incident happened, she did apologize right away as well. On the other hoof, it didn’t turn out so bad either. Octavia thought that when they meet they could finally get a nice little chat and clear this thing up. After all, they had been friends for years. Even if they couldn’t be lovers, they could still be music buddies.
The second day, everypony gathered at Twilight’s library. Then they started moving towards the other side of town where Vinyl lives. Strangely, everypony was quiet. Rarity wasn’t gossiping about the Canterlot celebrities, Twilight wasn’t giving a lecture on Ponyville history, Pinkie wasn’t jumping around and whoo’ing at all kinds of thing… even Rainbow Dash was trotting by her side instead of soaring high in the air.
“We’re here.” Twilight said as they reached the front door of Vinyl’s house. The door was shut tight, the curtains were closed, and the front yard had become a little messy. Even though Vinyl didn’t take care of the plants much anyway, Octavia felt like there hadn’t been any pony living here for a while.
“Urg, I am sorry, I thought you guys are taking me to Vinyl.”
“Vinyl said you need to come here first when you are ready.”
Octavia walked up, but Applejack suddenly dashed forward and stopped her with a hoof.
“lit’ Octavia, before you go in.” Applejack took a deep breath and said, “No matter what you see, we would like you to know that Vinyl had loved you, a lot.”
“You mean you all know about it?” Octavia’s eyes widened with shock.
“Well, yeah. Down here fillies’ love is actually not that uncommon.” Rainbow Dash said, shooting a weird look at Fluttershy, who blushed and turned away.
“All right, I’ll keep that in mind…” Octavia thought as she placed her hoof on the wooden hoofle of the door. She pressed it downwards, and the door slowly opened with a loud crack noise. Octavia was immediate greeted with some weird smell and a cloud of dusk. She stepped back a little and waited till the dust fell onto the ground, then she carefully walked in.
The house was empty. Everything was covered in a thin layer of dust, and of course extremely messy. Octavia smiled. Vinyl had always been such a careless pony. She never put anything back after using them, so her room had always been like a disaster. Octavia remember telling her to be more organized, but Vinyl simply shrugged her off and said she could find anything anytime she wanted.
“Oh yeah, prove it.” Octavia once said when she was visiting Vinyl.
Vinyl raised her muzzle. “All right, name one thing that I have.”
Octavia said the flash light, and Vinyl went on with the search which lasted roughly three hours. Vinyl gave up in the end and spent the entire afternoon putting stuff back to where they belong. But when Octavia came to visit again just a week later, everything was back to the way it was: scattered around all over the place.
Oh right. Octavia suddenly remembered what she was doing. She turned around and gave a smile of apology to the mane 6 who just trotted into the room. Octavia then turned around and started looking.
What could Vinyl want her to see in here? Octavia walked around and sudden something on the dining table caught her attention. She quickly walked up and realized that it was a thick, blue envelope. Octavia picked it up. On the front it says. “To Octavia. From: Vinyl Scratch”
Octavia’s felt her heart drop and stop. She quickly sat down on the chair nearby and opened the envelope with her hooves.
“All right girls, let’s leave lit’ Octavia alone and wait in the living room for now.” Applejack said quietly, and every other pony walked away with her.
Octavia tore open the light blue envelope and what looked like a long letter fell out. Octavia quickly picked it up and started reading eagerly.
“Dear Octavia:
Wow, this is the first time I had actually written a serious letter, Octavia. You have no idea what I had to go through to spell all the words correctly.”
Octavia giggled. She could read this in Vinyl’s voice, and she could almost see Vinyl sitting right next to her, scratching her head complaining how hard English is.
“Any way, I left this letter here so that you could see it someday.” Octavia continued with the letter, “I hope that you won’t get mad at me even though I knew you totally would, but yeah… when you see this, I will be gone.”
Gone? What does she mean by that? Octavia wondered.
“I am sorry. I knew I said I would stay and wait for you, but I just can’t. (Vinyl drew a very sad pony face here). I am sorry, I really am. You know I don’t lie. Well I do but you can tell right that right now I am seriously sorry. Please don’t feel too sad. You are much prettier when you are happy. Forget about me and go on with what you love and enjoy. Go play the cello like the boss you are Octy. I can’t let myself stop you from your dream again.
Yours
Vinyl Scratch”
The letter ended with the signature of Vinyl. Octavia sat on the dusty sofa. Her hooves were holding the letter. Her cello was brought back by Rainbow Dash and placed down next to her.
No, it can’t be…
Octavia felt everything around her spinning. She tried to stand up, but her knees slipped and she tripped over the table. She fell on the floor, still holding onto the letter for her dear life.
The other ponies heard the noise and rushed over. Applejack was the first. She sprinted into the room and saw Octavia lying down on the floor. She quickly moved over and pulled her up.
“Hey ya’all right sugar cube?”
“WHAT happened to Vinyl? Please, I need to know, tell me EVERYTHING!”
Applejack looked at Twilight, who sighed and said, “Octavia, please, calm down.”
“SHE WAS MY BEST FRIEND!”
“We know. But we don’t think…”
“Please, just cut it and tell me. I really can’t take this anymore. I will be fine. I promise.”
The ponies looked at each other and sighed. Then Twilight said, “I am terribly sorry, we did everything we can, but Vinyl… is not with us any more.”
It took a few seconds for the words to sink in. Octavia stood there for a little while, eyes wide open and jaw dropped. Then her face turned into an awkward smile.
"O...okay girls, please do not make those kind of jokes again, I am serious. Now, what happened to Vinyl?"
The mane six looked at each other, and then AJ spoke: "I wish we were joking sugar cube, but... things happen and there was nothing we could do about it. She died of lung cancer. The doctors tried everything, but... it was just too late."
Twilight stepped closer and put one of her hooves on Octavia. "I am so sorry that you have to find out this way, Octavia. I tried talking to Princess Celestia about it, but even she couldn't... I am so sorry."
Rarity sighed and said, “It was a horrible accident. She tried to keep it away from you so you wouldn’t be distracted from your career, but it was…”
“Wait, what?” Octavia felt her heart dropped to the bottom of her stomach, “What do you mean? Why would she try to hide it from... me?”
Twilight turned to Rarity, looking troubled, “Well…”
“Please!" Octavia pleaded, "You promised. No more lies. I just want the truth.”
Applejack walked up and put a hoof on Octavia’s shoulder, “Remember that night when Vinyl and you went to that fancy schmancy party?”
“Yes, that was a night I could never forget.”
“Vinyl said the same thing. She said she would never be able to forgive herself for acting like such an arrogant pony. She knew how close she was to ruining your career, and she felt terrible about it. So she decided to settle down back here in Ponyville. She didn't want to stop you from reaching your dreams.”
“That’s… oh Celestia, how could she…” Octavia felt her knees getting weaker. She half sat, half collapsed into the chair next to her. Knowing Vinyl for so many years, she wondered why she wasn't able to figure this out earlier.
“But she became ill, and she had to move to the Ponyville hospital. But things didn’t turn out so well, and she became very sick. One day she called us all into her room, and told us everything. She wanted us to keep it a secret from you, and she wanted you to know that she had always loved you, so much, and that she is terrible sorry for everything.”
Vinyl is gone. Her Vinyl is gone. The Vinyl Scratch she loved and cared about, gone forever.
“Oh Celestia… this is all my fault… if I hadn’t abandoned her…” Octavia could barely speak. She felt as if something deep inside of her had vanished. The words failed to escape her lips as she grasped for air. Tears flow down her round cheeks like broken pearls from a necklace. She closed her eyes and covered her face with her hooves, trying to stop herself from crying.
“It’s not your fault, Octavia! It’s nopony’s fault. It's just… things happens. Bad things. Please, you must not blame yourself.” Twilight's voice became quiet and weak as she spoke, "I even wrote to Princess Celestia and begged for her help, but for the first time... she couldn't help me."
Rarity trotted over and placed her hoof on Octavia as well, "Darling, we all feel terrible, but you must not blame yourself. I know that Vinyl would want you to be happy, even without her."
But Octavia didn't hear Rarity's words. In fact, she could barely think. She felt her senses detach as the world faded away from her. The last thing she heard was somepony saying "Are you okay?" before she felt herself falling out of the chair and slamming head-first into the cold wooden floor. She felt the colors in her world fading away and the infinite darkness consuming her, until she had none but one thought left.
Oh Vinyl, I am so sorry.
Her hooves were still weary from the black out she just had. Her body was still shaking from the cold of the midnight air, but never before, had her mind been so clear and determined. She tightened the straps for cello box and mumbled to herself as she looked up at the tiny hills before her.
It will be all over soon.
Just a few hours ago, Octavia woke up in the Ponyville hospital. She knew she was all right, since it was only a faint caused by trauma. However, her heart was heavy and cold. She had never quite felt like this before, not even when her first contract was brutally rejected.
She sighed and looked around her. It was 4 o'clock in the morning, and the night was still and quiet. She shivered as she stepped out of the bed and landed her hooves on the cold, wooden hospital floor.
She looked over and noticed an envelope laying on top of the little desk next to her bed. She rushed over and picked it up. It was an ordinary mail with a red seal over it. The receiver was Octavia, and the sender... was Fancy Pants.
She quickly unsealed it and pulled out the content. It was a letter. She hesitated a bit, but then she quickly unfolded the paper and started reading it.
"Dear Octavia:
This is Fancy Pants. I have some good news for you. The Princess will be making a visit to Saddle Arabia soon, and she had offered a position for the first royal cellist among the orchestra which will accompany her. Knowing you for a long time, I knew you would be up for the job. Have fun!
-Fancy Pants"
Octavia felt a pit of fire arousing from the bottom of her stomach. She grabbed the letter firmly with both of her hooves and pulled. The paper made a very unpleasant tearing noise from the intense force, but Octavia quickly stopped before the paper was torn up.
"How... How can I live with this now?" She said to herself, looking up at the bright, flawless moon. "I can't just quit now. I have lost too much to just quit now. I think this is what Vinyl wants too. But..."
She buried her face in between her hooves. Is she making the right choice? Should she once again, leave Vinyl behind and chase after her own dream? Or would that be what Vinyl wanted?
"Vinyl... I don't know what to do... Please... Help me..."
She sat down on her bed with the slightly torn letter in her hooves. She read the letter again, but she still couldn't make up her mind. If she were to make that appointment, she would have to leave Ponyville tomorrow morning to catch the earliest train back to Canterlot.
"Tavi, you are always so worried."
"What? No I am not."
"Yeah you are, there is always something on your mind."
"Well, one event always lead to another. I have to evaluate all the possible outcomes before I make my decision."
"That's stupid. Just do what you want. You only live once, right?"
"Please don't use that phrase ever again."
"Ah come on Tavi! You gotta admit that it's pretty true. You don't have a second chance, so might as well give the world your best shot, right?"
Octaiva could still remember Vinyl's warm smile and her kind words.
"Give it my best shot.... right...?"
She rubbed her sore eyes with her hooves and sighed. She read the letter over one more time, and that made her determination even stronger.
Yes, she cannot turn back now. The past cannot be change, and she may never be able to let go of this sorrow and guilt. However, no matter how dark and cold the night is, the morning will still come. The sun will still shine it's glory golden light on everything. The world will still be a nice and gentle place, and she is still a part of it.
Octavia looked at the clock. The train will be here in a couple hours. She doesn't have much time. She packed up all her belongs, and she quickly left a note for her friends. She then picked up her cello case, and left the hospital.
"R.I.P"
"Here lies Vinyl Scratch, Ponyville's most talented DJ"
Octavia stood in front of the tombstone with her cello in her hooves. She took a deep breathe, and started playing as the sunrise slowly covered her in a shade of orange and gold. She played with passion like never before, and with each tug and pull of the string, she felt her emotions flow like a river. It was as if all her feelings were translated into notes, and then slipped through the tip of her hooves into the air nearby. She felt tear streaming down her cheeks once again.
Vinyl, if you can hear me in heaven... I am sorry. Please, forgive me.
------------------------------------------------ Fin -----------------------------------------------
After a moment of silence, Vinyl clapped her hoofs slowly with respect; and shaking her head, "Octavia, I thought you were good, but I didn’t expect you to be THIS good!"
Octavia blushed slightly from being praised by some pony other than her family for the first time in her life. She held her bow hoof to the side and did a little classical filly bow.
“Thank you very much, Vinyl.”
“Hey, do you have time after school today? We should totally hang out! I’ve got something I’d like to show you as well!”
As appealing as it sounded, Octavia knew that she had to refuse. First of all, she still had a lot of stuff to unpack and sort from the moving. Secondly, she didn't feel comfortable to visit the home of some filly who she had just met today. It wasn’t that she didn't trust Vinyl (in fact, she sort of liked this filly who was nice to her and also, unlike her, had some guts to speak up for her). Octavia just wanted to take it slow and gentle, like a classical cello piece. She didn't want to rush things too quickly.
Vinyl looked a bit disappointed, which made Octavia feel a bit sorry. So she said in a cheerful tone:, "Hey. Would you like to hear something that I have been working on lately?”
“Sure!” Vinyl said with a wide smile on her face; Vinyl's joy-filled tailed wagged from side to side like that of a puppy, making Octavia giggle a bit. Then she quickly went back to being a professionally serious performer and held her bow and cello in place. She placed the bow gently on the strings and then slowly slid it down to play an open D, then an A, then a B, and then a C… Streams of notes began to flow into the room from Octavia’s cello.
For little Octavia, she thought that very instant, on that Tuesday afternoon, was the most precious moment of her entire life.
