Irreversible

4

The hypnotizing ring of masterful musicianship rang out through Octavia’s small apartment as she tactfully plucked the strings of her cello while a filly that looked like a smaller version of herself watched with wide eyed wonderment.

With grace befitting her many years of practice, Octavia finished off the piece she’d been playing with a elegant dim and leaned back away from her instrument.

“Oh my gosh, mommy. That was so good,” the filly beside her exclaimed, buzzing excitedly in her seat on the floor.

“Thank you, sweetheart,” she smiled sweetly at the filly.

“How’d you get to be so good?”

Octavia mulled over the question for a long moment before simply replying with “practice.”

“Do you think I could be good like you one day?”

Octavia wrapped a hoof around her daughter and pulled her close. “Of course.”

Octavia and her daughter shared a quiet intimate moment of contact before she released her daughter and leaned over the opposite side of the stool, retrieving a small, delicately wrapped rectangular object from the floor.

“And I know the perfect place to start.”

Octavia smiled at the way her daughter’s eyes sparkled as she stared at the box, her joy turning to surprise as her daughter snatched the box out of her hoof and began to tear into the wrapping.

The paper never stood a chance, and in what felt like an instant it had been done away with altogether and left her daughter turning an expertly crafted mahogany box over in her hooves.

“Open it,” Octavia laughed, and without wasting another breath she hoofed open the lid, staring open-mouthed at the pristinely kept violin inside and then back to her mother.

“Is this for me?” She asked, flabbergasted. Octavia merely nodded, laughing demurely as her daughter continued to stare slack-jawed. Then — in a sudden rush of movement — the filly lunged at her, wrapping her hooves around Octavia’s neck.

“Thank you mommy,” she said.

Octavia smiled and returned the embrace just as fervently. “You’re welcome, sweetheart.”