Octavia sat at her usual table in the Sparrow cafe in Canterlot. She sipped on a cup of herbal tea as she watched the sun rise over the horizon. This is just another normal day in Octavia’s life. It may seem bland to others, but not to her. This was as exciting as it got for her. Every day she got up at five thirty in the morning, took a shower, and took a stroll down to the Sparrow for a pastry and some tea. After breakfast, she headed to orchestra practice and played until exactly noon. After finishing practice, she went back to the Sparrow for lunch. The usual hayburger and fries were accompanied by a soda or milkshake.

She may not seem like a pony who enjoys junk food, but it’s her guilty pleasure. After lunch, she headed back to practice and played until six. Once she’s done putting away her cello in its designated locker, she leaves and takes a scenic stroll through Canterlot Central Park. In the middle of her stroll, she takes a break for exactly ten minutes to sit on her favorite bench and feed the pigeons. After she’s fed the pigeons, she finishes her stroll and heads to her favorite pizza place for dinner.

After dinner, she goes home and listens to some of her classical records until eight o clock. After that, she takes another quick shower to wash away the grime and stress the day had put on her, and then goes to bed at exactly nine every night. Lather, rinse and repeat. She’s had the same routine for the last six years, and frankly, she doesn’t give a damn. Her life is exactly the way she wants it. She lives in a nice apartment and gets a decent wage by performing one Friday a month at the Canterlot Theatre. She spends very little on pointless things and focuses on three things. Eating three meals a day, paying her bills, and getting to practice on time.

On Saturdays she does the same routine, but instead of going to practice, she sits and listens to the local bands play in the cafe. Most of the time, she enjoys the music even though it isn’t really her style. The only change that Octavia really ever sees in her daily life is the new band that comes to play every two weeks. Sometimes the bands are outstanding enough for Octavia to go and personally congratulate them (and even tip if they’re good enough). Other times the bands are so bad, she leaves early to take her routine stroll. Instead of going back to the cafe after her stroll, she goes to a small pub on the corner of two busy streets called the Nightcrawler. She usually sits in the same spot every time, and even the regulars know to save that seat for her.

Octavia’s drink choice, however is interesting. The first year she came to the bar, she only ordered a single glass of fine wine to complement a custom dinner the chef made for her. Over time, she began to order harder drinks much more often and even started to eat the regular hay sandwich and fries, or the daffodil special soup.

She is used to her lifestyle, and you may look at her and see that she’s happy, but on the inside, she’s cracking like an egg. She wasn’t this way when she was a filly. Octavia was an orphan until two ponies adopted her when she was nine. Believe it or not, she was actually a troublemaking and roughhousing filly. She listened to rock music and vandalized with her older friends. Once she was adopted, her new parents took years to teach her to be proper and live a simple but steady life. On the sideline, they made her take music lessons and learn classical stuff, but secretly she listened to all the cool rock bands you see on magazine covers and billboards. She got her cutie mark in music while playing the cello, so everypony assumed it was for her cello skill. No denying she was good at what she did, but Octavia believed that that treble clef was meant for her understanding of music and not for simply playing the stupid cello.

Don’t get her wrong, she loved the cello, but Octavia wanted more out of her cutie mark than just playing classical music. She knew that and she felt it. It was her destiny to understand music and play it, but to be happy, she needed to do her own thing. She needed to play the kind of music she liked. Sadly, she never chased that dream. When she turned fifteen, Octavia was completely bland. Everything that made her Octavia was gone. The only thing that remained that made her the same pony was her cutie mark, her name, and her cello.

Octavia no longer stayed a chatty, social, fun pony, but instead turned into a quiet, cello playing zombie. She finished her schooling days quietly and orderly, and went to a musical university where she spent her time trying to graduate top of her class. She did eventually, but looking back, she wished she’d made even a single friend. She’d lived alone in an apartment pretty close to campus, so there was no point in staying in a dorm. She never had a roommate, and hadn’t had a single friend other than the employees at the Sparrow and the regular customers and staff at the bar. Even then, it was a rarity if she said more than “hello” or “the usual please”.

Now being in her mid twenties, her heart longed for change, but everything she had been taught told her to restrict it. It’s like she’s trying to climb out of a room with no windows and no doors, a single lightbulb hanging by the ceiling illuminating the small cramped room, slowly becoming dimmer over time.

The time to change is now or never. Time slowly ticks away for all of us, but some have it spent better than others. Some may think having money is everything in life. To Octavia however, it is the exact opposite. She’d rather give away all her money and job to do something she legitimately enjoyed. Even if she’s dirt poor, she’d be happy doing something she loves.

Today is the day that Octavia’s mask finally cracks.

Octavia finished her tea and pastry and put her cup and plate back on the tray. Today is Saturday, and a new band is supposed to show up for the next two weeks. She sat at her table and waited for the band to show up. Once they finally did, they looked frustrated. Wait… Octavia knew some of these ponies! Well, one of them anyway. Lyra Heartstrings had attended college with her, and was her biggest opponent in her Musical Theory class. They both tied with the highest scores in the class and haven’t seen each other since. So that’s what she’s been doing!

“You know what? I think I’m going to go talk to her. Maybe I can discuss music with her!” Octavia thought as she got up from her table to go meet her old rival.

“Hello Lyra! Do you remember me?” She asked, putting on the best smile she could muster. Lyra’s frown instantly vanished, and she returned the smile.

“Oh, hello Octavia! I didn’t think I’d see you here. It’s been a while! How have you been?” This was going better than Octavia had originally thought it would be. Wow. Lyra is actually really nice.

“Oh, I‘ve been just splendid! How have you been?”

“Just, you know, enjoying music as always. Have you come to listen to my band?” Lyra asked, a bit of uneasiness washed over her face.

“In fact, I am! I come every weekend to listen to the different bands play. This is your band? That’s amazing!”

“Haha, yeah thanks! It formed a few months ago when me and a couple of my friends decided to do a bit of a jam together. A couple covers later, we decided to make it official and try our own songs. We do have a bit of a problem, though.”

“Oh really? What is it?” Octavia questioned.

“Our bass guitarist got a job in Manehattan, so he had to leave. Now all we have is our drummer, me, the guitarist, and the pianist, who is also our main vocalist. I mean, we can pull it off, but it just won’t be the same without that bassline, you know?”

Octavia saw a chance. A slim one, but it was still there. Could she finally be the pony she once wanted to be? She does play the cello, which is much like the bass guitar, but with slightly different tuning. She was an experienced musician, so it wouldn’t be a problem for her, but the only thing she’d need to get used to is not using a bow.

“I can play the bass!” Octavia blurted.

“R-really?” Lyra asked, curious.

“Well, cello, but it’s basically the same thing. The different tuning won’t be a problem for me.”

“Oh… Alright then! You don’t know the songs, though, so I’ll just tell you the key and you can just jam over it. Sound good?“

“Uh… Yeah! Sounds great!” Octavia understood jamming, but had never really done it before. Especially not live.

“Awesome! Our bassist left his guitar with us when he left, so you can use it for now. I know how talented of a musician you are, so I don’t think a tryout is necessary. Besides, we’re running out of time. Come on, I’ll show you the other members!“

“Uh, sure! Great! Thanks!”

“Welcome to Rhythm Guardian, Octavia.”

Octavia felt a twinge in her chest, but couldn’t place what it was. Her mind was blank as Lyra led her through the cafe. She was saying various things about how excited she was to see, or rather hear Octavia play. A small group of ponies sat around the cafe talking to each other in anticipation of the band. Their lively chatter fitting in well with the well lit an overall happy place. Octavia followed Lyra to the back corner where two ponies nervously fiddled with their instruments. They walked up to a pretty mare who sat behind a piano. Her eyes, wide open and lively, seemed inviting to Octavia

“This is Key! She plays the piano. Key, she’s going to be taking over the bass today.” Lyra introduced a pearl white pony with bright green eyes. Her mane was much like Lyra’s but it was jet black instead of mint. Her tail shot and curly. She smiled and showed her pearly whites. Honestly, a dentist would be jealous of those teeth.

“Hi! Nice to meet you… uh-”

“Octavia.”

“Octavia, that’s a nice name! Well, nice to meet you Octavia. It’ll be a BLAST playing with you.” She bumped hooves with Octavia before saying, “If you’ll excuse me, I need to set up my piano a bit and warm up my voice.” Key’s voice was sweet and as melodious as any instrument. There are monotonous ponies who sing well, but she’s the exact opposite. It seemed like she could hit any note she tried. As she left, Lyra dragged Octavia to the drum set which sat on a slightly elevated platform. A somewhat short pony wearing a pair of sunglasses was sound checking the various drum parts.

“Hey Rocky! This is Octavia! She’ll be playing the bass with us today. He took off his sunglasses to reveal that he was missing an eye. His other eye, which was an electric blue, was open wide, staring at Octavia.

“Nice to meet yeh lassie,” he said as he stuck out a hoof. Octavia hesitated for a few seconds before bumping his hoof. “Feelin uncomfortable? That’s quite alright. I get that a lot. So yeh play the bass eh?” He asked, changing the subject.

“Why yes, well… No… It’s complicated. I play the cello, but it’s essentially the same thing becau-”

“Aye, I get it. There’s no need to explain music theory to me. I get enough already from Lyra.” He pointed to the mint unicorn in question with his hoof. Lyra had a bit of red in her cheeks, but it vanished when she thought of something to shoot back.

“Well, at least I don’t speak in an annoying accent all day” She said with a smug grin. Rocky’s grey coat seemed to turn completely red.

“Why, I outta-”

Octavia thought it’d be a good time to stop the fight right here before it turned ugly. “Please! Friends, no need to fight! We can all get along right?” Both Lyra and Rocky couldn’t keep a straight face. They fell on their sides with laughter.

“Oh Octy, we’re not serious! We joke around like this all the time. It’s part of being in a band!” As Rocky and Lyra recollected themselves Octavia thought. So band members are all close friends? I never needed to talk with any of the other orchestral ponies, so I never made any friends there.

“Oh snap! We still need to get you hooked up with a bass! Come on, this way Octy. Can I call you Octy?” Asked Lyra. A nickname… Octavia never had a nickname before.

“Octy, I love it! Sure!” She said as Lyra once again led her around the cafe. The musicians had their own special instrument storage room to keep their instruments during break hours or until their shift started. It was about the size of a small living room with two small rectangular windows. It almost looked like a garage.

“Aha! Here it is.” Lyra pulled out a long, brown rectangular case labeled ‘ROSE.’ “Go ahead, check it out.” Octavia slowly opened the case to reveal a beautiful bass guitar. It was a three color sunburst with an outside of black, brown in the center and a layer of red between those two. There were two F shaped sound holes. One on the top, above the strings and one under the strings. The lower one was half covered by a pickguard. Four knobs and a small chrome switch were around the lover sound hole. The silver pick ups glittered in the light as Octavia picked it up. This was much larger than she had thought it’d be. It was the same size as her cello. How was she to play this?

“Um, excuse me Lyra, but how did the previous owner play this instrument?” asked Octavia, plucking one of the strings with her hoof.

“Well, he uh... only used it once before he quit. I have no idea how to use it. Maybe you could just mess with it in here for a couple minutes to see if you can figure it out? I have a small amp here you can use.” She nudged a small cube amp that sat next to the nearest wall. “I need to go set up my own stuff right now, so I’ll be back in a few. Good luck!” As Lyra walked out and shut the door, Octavia plugged the bass into the small amp and tried to hold it like a regular guitar.

“Oof, no this is way too heavy to hold. Maybe if I stand it up like a cello?” Within a few seconds, the bass stood up and Octavia gripped it like her own instrument. “Let’s see… Let's try a basic blues scale, maybe?” She turned up the amp to where it was loud enough for her to hear, but not enough to disturb the outside.

Octavia plucked the low E string and let the amp put out a faint hum. She followed with a few octave E notes and played a short melody she had learned from an old Van Haylen record. This wasn’t nearly as difficult as she had originally thought.

“I think I’m ready! I’m going to play in a rock band!” Octavia shook with excitement as she unplugged from the amp and dragged the instrument out the door to the stage. It’s time to put on a real show.

Author's Note

Welcome to Rocktavia! I hope you all enjoy.

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Have a terrific day!