Rhabdophobia

Chapters

Dawn in Canterlot
The Concert Hall Unicorn.
Void
Musician Horses
A Decade of Fear
The Performance

Dawn in Canterlot

Chapter One

The shining sun painted the skies purple and marigold as the last stars of the night disappeared from the twilight sky. The clouds above shone with dusty orange light and the sun rose above the mountain ranges of the borders of Equestria. In Canterlot, upper-class unicorns in expensive clothing and frilly outfits of lilac and yellow to match the morning sky trotted in the cobblestone streets with their heads held high. Amongst the crowds of sophistication and elegance, a dreary grey earth pony carried a cello in her hooves, dragging the case against the ground and cursing under her breath. Scratches made their way into the crevices of the cello case from the cobblestone walkway as she walked on her two back hooves, and she growled as a small pebble flew up from the case and struck her on the snout. Suddenly, the case lifted off the ground and she fell with a hard thud on the concrete with the sudden shift in weight. Groaning and rubbing her temples with a worn-down grey hoof, her eyes focused on a blurry yellow shape above her.

“Need a little help?”

The earth pony rubbed her eyes and looked up to see a mint green unicorn in a lavish purple dress, levitating her case with golden magic and smiling crookedly. She held out a hoof to help the earth pony up, and it was immediately slapped away indignantly.

“What do you think you’re doing?” The earth pony growled and flicked the unicorns’ horn, shorting out her magic. This didn't seem to dissuade the unicorn in the slightest; she only grinned wider and continued to stare wide-eyed at the cello case and the pony in front of her with large, golden eyes.

“My name’s Heartstrings. Lyra Heartstrings; if I may be so bold, I’m a big fan of your work. I've seen you play before, Octavia.”

“That’s Miss Melody to you.” she sneered, shrugging off the forced compliment and glaring down at Lyra with angry purple eyes. The unicorn shrugged and brushed a piece of white hair in her mane off her face.

“I was only trying to be polite to a fellow musician.” Lyra shrugged as she turned to her side and gestured at her cutie mark, visible under her elegant dress; it was a golden lyre. She then pointed at Octavia’s own purple treble clef cutie mark and shrugged again. “I may not be as well-known as you, but I feel everypony should be…”

“I don’t need your kind of help.” Octavia cut her off with a menacing tone and a heavy heart beating like a drum in her chest. Her hoof-steps felt like heavy lead as she continued to drag her instrument away with her as the case clattered loudly down the street, much to the chagrin of the other ponies within earshot. Lyra only shook her head and walked in pace with the angry earth pony, bouncing along in time to the clattering of the cello on the sidewalk.

“Where are you going, Miss Melody?” Lyra inquired, cocking her head to one side. Octavia grimaced and trotted faster.

“I don’t have time for new… friends.” She ignored Lyra’s question and kept her pace. “Please leave me alone; I’m running late as it is and I’m uncomfortable with your kind of help.” Octavia politely mentioned, in vain hope the unicorn would leave.

“What do you mean my kind of help?” Lyra asked, to which she only received an annoyed grunt in reply.

“Hello, Heartstrings!” A sickly-sweet voice hollered down the street. A cream coloured earth pony ran towards the two, her dark blue and fuchsia mane a mess of large curls. She crossed the street without a glance and a heavy-set red stallion pulling a cart had to screech to a halt to avoid running over her. The heavy cart smacked into his rump and a string of obscenities came from his mouth, but the mare ignored him and kept trotting across the street.

“Bonbon, my darling!” Lyra cried as the earth pony embraced her. She picked her up in a golden aura and spun her around. Octavia screamed and ducked to avoid a swift kick from the spinning pony’s glowing hindquarters. She flicked Lyra’s horn once more and grabbed Bonbon by her foreleg, dragging her to her feet. She looked her over and chewed her lip, troubled at the sight. Unicorn magic can harm earth ponies, and Octavia has had first-hoof experience at the dangers of magic.

“What the hay do you think you’re doing?” Octavia demanded with concern painted across her face, eyeing the earth pony over and checking for burns. Bonbon shifted uneasily and swished her tail; a nervous habit she had picked up from years of stressful candy making under the scrutiny of picky little foals. Lyra lowered her fluffy ears and rubbed her horn with her hoof, staring. Having her magic shorted out by a flick of a hoof was not something that Lyra was used to, nor did she like. It felt too strange to her, the pressure of concentrated magic rushing back into her veins and flowing through her body, like holding back tears. It made her feel sick.

“What do you mean by that?” Bonbon gingerly inquired. Octavia sat up quickly and stared at the two in shock, taking Bonbon’s hoof in her own and looking into the other earth pony’s indigo eyes. She was taken aback by the grey earth pony’s demeanour. Celestias’ sun felt colder under Octavias’ unwavering stare.

“That,” Octavia gestured with her muzzle, crinkled in concern, “is a unicorn.” She spat out the words as if they were sour grapes in her mouth as she glared at the two ponies before her, and an intimidated Bonbon took her hoof from Octavias’ and slunk back. Lyra looked around and saw far more ponies than she saw before; a small crowd had gathered around the three of them.

“Yes… she is a unicorn.” Bonbon stated slowly. “Why do you mention that?”

“You’re acquainted with a unicorn?” Octavia marched up to her and stuck a well-manicured hoof in her face, “a unicorn!?” She lowered her voice and turned away from Lyra as she stuck her muzzle up to Bonbon’s ear. “Earth ponies and unicorn magic does not mix; I would watch your back if I were you.” She whispered. “I wouldn’t want somepony hurt by magic that they don’t control. It’s a dangerous game, compared with their vicious nature.”

“What kind of old-fashioned life have you been living?” Lyra piped up, overhearing the conversation of the two earth ponies. She walked over to Bonbon and swatted Octavia’s hoof away from her face. “The magic of all ponies is what Equestria was built on, Miss Melody.”

“Magic, my flank!” Octavia scowled, her eyes darting from the unicorn to the earth pony. She lowered her voice again and spoke to Lyra. “Unicorn magic burns the skin, and in the wrong hooves… well, horn… it can lead to the death of somepony you care about.” Lyra was taken aback, and fired up her horn in retaliation, gripping Bonbon’s hoof in her golden aura and flicking under the skin very, very lightly. Bonbon crinkled her nose in an attempt to cover up her laughter. She shot Lyra a dirty look and the pony released her grip, grinning sheepishly.

“See? No damage!” Lyra remarked.

“Plus, that’s a little racist, don’t you think?” Bonbon whispered to Octavia in return, before walking back over to the mint green pony, “And actually, Miss Melody, we’re a little more than friends.” Bonbon admitted as she nuzzled the unicorn, and Lyra giggled obnoxiously before slapping a hoof over her mouth and blushing like a madpony.
Octavia gasped and lowered her ears worriedly. This earth pony is clearly in some very real danger! Unicorn magic is dangerous; they’re capable of so much damage. Unicorns and their anger was not something to be trifled with, and Octavia knew that all too well; she slicked back her messy dark mane self-consciously, hiding a bear patch of skin with an ugly scar, posed on her upper forehead. It still made her exposed flesh crawl. Perhaps Bonbon was poisoned with a love potion? A sharp pain stabbed through her head and she rubbed her temples with her hooves angrily. No… they must be playing some kind of joke on her!

“This isn’t funny!” She bellowed. The crowd took a step back. “Unicorns treat us like we’re stupid; I worked damn hard to get where I am using my bare hooves!”

“So did I, using my magic.” Lyra whispered uneasily to Bonbon. She rolled her eyes.

“I know some unicorns have been prejudiced against earth ponies in the past,” Lyra started, tapping her hoof on the cobblestone walkway, “and that certain unicorns have done some very rotten things; all races of ponies have done so…” She glanced at the crowd, consisting of mainly unicorns in high-class fashion-wear with their noses up towards the commotion, “But even here, there’s virtually no violence on the streets!”

Octavia clenched her teeth and regretted raising her voice. She only wanted to help a pony she thought was in danger; Bonbon was a stranger, yes, but Octavia was not a fan of leaving a pony in the hooves of a potential monster, regardless if she knew them or not. All unicorns had that power in them, after all.
“Yeah, sure; whatever you say, you unicorn.” Octavia sighed. With a deadpan look, she grabbed her cello in her mouth and began to walk away. As she disappeared into the crowd, Bonbon couldn’t help but feel sorry for the earth pony as she wandered away, despite the anger bubbling inside her like volcanic molten lava from the way Octavia had treated her marefriend. The crowd parted as the small grey earth pony barged her way past the common crowds of well-dressed ponies, muttering under her breath. The surrounding crowd began whispering carelessly amongst themselves as the earth pony moved them aside like a cannonball knocking through a wall.

“What’s her problem?”
“What a loudmouth.”
“She’s in Canterlot! How dare she say such horrid things?”
“Judging by her behaviour, maybe unicorns are more refined than earth ponies.”
“What a snoot.”
“I bet she sucks unicorn horn.”

Octavia walked away, miserable and alone. Her sad, prismatic eyes took in the bright city streets ahead of her, and the hard cobblestone beneath her hooves; it felt like such a contrast to how she felt inside. She was usually so good with her outbursts, but she just… slipped up. She recalled meetings upon meetings of anger management classes surrounded by others like her that desperately needed help, playing her cello to release the stresses inside her. Delighting the group with her playing, she’d decreed that the instrument was her best shot at keeping her outbursts under her control.
The anger was just too much for her, this time.

“Damn Lyra.” She growled to herself, regretting the confrontation. She tried desperately to push the memory out of her clouded mind, but she simply wasn’t strong enough. That unicorn was out to insult her, and she only wanted to help Bonbon; what else was she to do but to stand her ground and fight back? She could never turn down a pony in need of assistance; that was just her way. She loved to help other ponies, especially strangers. It was good for her reputation as an artist and musician, after all, to be seen helping others with her own four hooves, without the aid of magic.
Bloody, bloody magic – it’d be the death of her one day.
She despised magic of all kinds; she considered it a cheap shortcut to what she could do with her bare hooves. Her cello case hit a bump in the road and scraped mercilessly on the ground, shocking her out of her thoughts, and she struggled to pick it up with just her teeth alone. She then noticed the wet, salty tears running down her cheek and she quickly wiped them away in confusion. She quickly glanced behind her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t being followed by any ponies who’d witnessed her outbursts, and when she saw only an empty street behind her, she felt a strange mixture of relief and guilt. In her ranting, she’d driven the ponies on the streets away.

“Damn Lyra.” She repeated. Maybe she was a little out of line, giving out advice without permission, but the aggressive unicorn stereotype is there for a reason. There’s a reason the majority of the Royal Guards she had seen in her visits were unicorns. They were quick and short-tempered, the lot of them. A race to surely be wary of, with raw power in their veins and fire at their very hooves; unicorns were primitive and uncaring. They were below her kind. They couldn’t control their anger.
But, after that outburst, was she any better than what she judged the unicorn to be?
…
Nonsense, of course she was! She couldn’t shoot her rage out of her head like unicorns did, after all, so she couldn’t harm anypony with her anger, and she worked with her hooves instead of using witchcraft to achieve her means. That automatically makes her the better pony!
Doesn’t it?
Octavia shook the thought out of her head and scoffed, continuing on her way with new-found arrogance filling her with faux confidence, and a lingering sense of shame following her like a shadow in a fading evening light.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading.

The Concert Hall Unicorn.

Chapter Two

Octavia Melody arrived at the Canterlot Concert Hall with her scratched cello case and looked up at the massive structure. Tall and wide, it was near impossible to miss; the stone foundations at the base were carved into with a massive array of bizarre patterns and details, each with faint remnants of colours in the scratches of the stones. Keeping the structure upright, columns of the darkest shade of wood sprung from the stones and captured the building in a delicate balance between the light of the walls and the darkness contained in the wooden structure. The walls were made of delicate white chalky bricks, and as Octavia walked through the door to the entrance, she brushed her tail on the outside wall, and left a chalky white outline on her tail. She brushed the mess off in the doorway and plonked her cello case it beside her. She breathed deeply and sat down beside her instrument, trying to catch her breath. It had been a long walk, and the thoughts that weighed down on her mind didn’t make it easier on her. She wiped the sweat off her brow and wiped some of the dirt off the cello case.

“Miss Octavia Melody, I presume?” a silky voice ran through the lobby and made its’ way down Octavia’s spine; she shivered in response and looked up to see a young white unicorn with neatly-combed electric blue hair. She sported a gorgeous sapphire blue dress and a simple magenta hairpiece that matched her eyes. She bore a nametag with the name ‘VINYL SCRATCH’ carved in gold, under the title of her occupation: ‘General Assistance’. Octavia raised her eyebrow, staring at the stranger in front of her.
“I’ve heard a lot about you. Let me show you to your room.” Vinyl told the earth pony, with a smile plastered on her face like paint on a lively canvas. She picked up the cello case with her magic of electric blue and Octavia growled.

“Hey, I can carry that just fine by myself!” She mentioned, and the young unicorn in front of her simply laughed.

“Of course you can; you did drag it here after all.” She said, prancing ahead of Octavia. She dropped the cello gently beside the earth pony and trotted out the door to the foyer, waiting to be followed. Octavia groaned and followed reluctantly, and as she crossed the threshold, her eyes widened and she stopped dead in her tracks. The room was stunning; far greater than any she had seen back in her home in Manehattan. The ceiling sparkled with diamond accents sprinkled over a glass mosaic of the regal alicorn, Princess Celestia, as she raised the sun above a desolate tangerine and turquoise sky. Four large wooden columns were placed on each corner, and on each were symbols made of glass. Octavia recognized one as the late Windsong Harmony’s cutie mark of three notes, held with a legato line. She was a brilliant vocalist and sang in only the most famous operas, performing in the concert hall eons ago, just after the Princesses rose to power. Looking around, she noticed other cutie marks adorning the wooden columns; Rivernote, Adagio Tangerine, and Bass Clef, amongst other famous musicians of their time. The sunlight shone from the glass and coated the walls in a faint, rainbow glow. Beneath her hooves, shining white marble paved the floors and the steps leading from the doorframe where she stood, and she gingerly stepped forward, down to the centre of the foyer.

“It’s beautiful.” Octavia breathed.

“It is, indeed. I’m Vinyl, by the way.” The white unicorn prodded Octavia with her horn. She took the earth pony’s dumbfounded silence as a weak acknowledgement and pranced to the wooden double-doors in front of the two. She opened them with a swift wave of her electric magic and walked through, waiting for Octavia to follow. She looked behind her and saw the earth pony glaring at her.

“Why don’t you just open it with your hoof like a normal pony?” Octavia asked.

“What’s a normal pony?” Vinyl replied with a flick of her neatly-combed electric-blue tail. Her voice held a jovial quality, which Octavia disliked. To her, it sounded as if the unicorn was making fun of her.

“A pony without… that.” She gestured to the top of Vinyl’s forehead.

“What, my horn? Don’t like, one-third of ponies own a horn?” Vinyl laughed carelessly, trotting down the corridor and into a dressing-room. She poked her head through the door. “Does it, like, threaten you or something?”

“Of course not, it’s just that it looks like all you unicorns do things the easy way with your magic,” Octavia spat the words like bullets from a gun, “While the rest of us do things with our hooves. We work hard and magic feels like you’re all cheating the system.”

“Magic is a skill we unicorns have to hone.” Vinyl peered from the room and gestured to Octavia to follow her in, “It’s like building up the muscles in your back-legs so you can kick a heavy door open!”

“I don’t believe you.” Octavia rolled her eyes and snorted slightly.

“Well, maybe some of us are blessed with a particular gift of magic…” Vinyl thought back to when she was just a foal, touring the Canterlot gardens, and a small purple unicorn filly only slightly smaller than herself was on the balcony above them picking up larger and heavier objects in the grounds with her magic alone, as the ruler of the land watched behind her with a keen eye. It was an impressive sight to behold. “But most of us don’t. We only have the magic related to our special talents.” Vinyl concluded, and levitated the hairpiece in her mane to demonstrate. Octavia followed wordlessly with hesitation in her usually confident stride, still struggling with her cello. Vinyl could only shake her head at the ridiculous spectacle.
“Will you at least let me help you carry that with my hooves, Octavia?”

“…Fine.”

The dressing room, Octavia thought, left a lot to be desired. With chipping brown paint, dusty mirrors and unstable cabinets, she didn’t quite know what to think. The foyer was so much more beautiful, so elegant, so classy. It was a work of art compared to this.

"This place is disgusting," her mind shrieked like an inexperienced cellist performing with a squeaking bow.

Entering the room with caution, she screwed up her nose as an assault of dust hit her muzzle. Suppressing a sneeze, she stared at the confident pony behind her. Vinyl nodded and whinnied happily, as she confirmed this was, indeed, her dressing room. Sighing, Octavia placed her hoof on a rickety wooden floorboard and it squeaked in frustration. She jumped back, startled, and sniffed at the wood. It smelled like pine; no hint of termites. She breathed a sigh of relief and stepped gingerly back on the floor and it squeaked in protest under her weight.
“It won’t bite ya; watch this!” Vinyl gleefully mentioned to her uncertain companion. She bounced onto the wood with the full strength of her slightly-ample frame as she held the heavy cello in her mouth.

“VINYL, NO!” Octavia screamed, her hooves flying to her face to cover her eyes on an undignified manner. Suddenly, there was a loud crack, and the two mares plummeted downwards through the floor, into the newly-formed chasm below.

Thud.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading.

Void

Chapter Three

The darkness was consuming, and the silence was utterly deafening. The cold, hard concrete floor was the only thing Octavia could feel; everything else was gone. An icy fear gripped her as she looked up and saw where they had fallen from; it was at least fifty feet high and the dim light was swallowed by the darkness before it even reached the floor. She tried to rise, but as she put her right front hoof down, a searing pain shot through the arm. She whimpered pitifully and collapsed under her weight. She groaned and tried to relax; her mind was clouded by a deep feeling of dread and the excruciating pain rippling through her body. Her heart was pounding like a drum and her thoughts flashed from one nightmare to another.

What if they don’t come looking for me?
What if I never get out?
What will happen to the concert?

The concert! Octavia winced and caressed her injured foreleg. She wouldn’t be performing tonight, it would seem. Oh, the humiliation of not showing up to a major concert in a city she’d never been before, the night she was to perform! She cringed at the thought - a professional musician like herself, tardy for a performance? What a ridiculous sentiment. She had worked so hard to be where she was now, and she was not about to let everything she’d worked for slip away! Rising to her hooves, albeit three of them taking the weight off of the injured one, she narrowed her eyes and looked around. All she could see was black.

Suddenly, there was a weak groan behind her.

“Vinyl, is that you?” She whipped around and spotted a darker outline on the ground by her side. A faint glow began to emanate off the object; a weak, blue light. Octavia recognised it immediately as remnants of unicorn magic.

“Oops.” Vinyl whispered, with a pathetic grin slapped forcefully upon her face. She rolled onto her back and her horn glowed a brighter blue. She looked around her and saw the face of the musician peering down at her with eyes that seemed colder than the concrete she lay on.

“Why would you do that? You could have gotten us killed!” Octavia shouted in Vinyl’s face with red-hot anger laced in her shrill voice. Vinyl lowered her gaze and stared at the floor, accidentally blinding Octavia’s eyes with her glowing horn. She shrieked in pain and rose to her two back hooves as she rubbed her eyes to get rid of the flecks of echoing light. “Why do you even have that thing on?”

“I’m sorry Octavia,” She whispered again, “I really didn’t mean to. I’m just bringing a little light in here, that’s all.”

“Turn that thing off. You unicorns don’t use your magic for anything good.” She rubbed her sore eyes and glared accusingly at the young white unicorn.

“What do you mean?” Vinyl asked, sickly sweetness dripping off her tone of voice like a honeybee in a hive. She’d grown up in Canterlot, amongst both unicorns and earth ponies, and the majority got along extremely well together. As far as she knew, she’d never met an earth pony with such a prejudice against her as a species. It was certainly very jarring to her, especially to meet a famous musician who acted this way.
“What is your problem with unicorns?” Her gravelly voice was piercing, ringing in Octavia’s ears.

“In my own experience,” Octavia sighed nonchalantly; staring at Vinyl’s wide, accusing eyes with an indignant glare of her own. “Unicorns have been nothing but trouble. My parents worked on an orange orchard on the outskirts of Manehattan when I was a filly; it wasn’t a high-paying job, but they managed.” Octavia sat back down on her haunches and pressed her ears to her skull in concern, recalling the memories of her early childhood.
“They were honest, hardworking ponies. Earth ponies, like me.” She pointed to her fluffed chest and ran her hoof through her mane in a feeble attempt to relax her frayed nerves.

“Go on.” Vinyl encouraged her with a gentle prod of her hooves; as long as Octavia kept talking, she wouldn't have the time to criticize her again.

“I was sent to work when I was a little filly, too, with my cousin. She looked like me, but we could all tell her passion lay with country music. She even wore a little cowboy hat.” Octavia laughed half-heartedly at the distant memory of her blue maned cousin, and sentiment clutched her heart. It ached with the burden, and she continued with a small crack in her voice.
“We even shared the same cutie mark, albeit hers fit better with the instrument of her choosing.” She recalled the fiddle her cousin would play with such vigour, and she always envied her carefree playing. “I never did work out why my cutie mark didn’t match up quite right.”
Vinyl patted her chin with her hoof, thinking. It was true; after all, the cello is predominantly written in the bass clef, but the pony sitting next to her sported a bright purple treble clef on her rump.

“Maybe it just means your gift lies with music in general?” She suggested. Octavia, lost in her own thoughts, didn’t acknowledge the unicorn, and instead continued her story.

“With her help, I earned enough from working the farm as a filly to buy my first instrument. I chose the cello, and it’s stuck with me ever since. It's how I got my cutie mark, you know; playing the brilliant instrument. The two of us would play some rather... interesting duets together.” Octavia chucked at the memory of a screeching fiddle and a deep, brash cello ringing together and driving everypony out of the house while the two practised together. Suddenly, her expression darkened and she lowered her ears before she continued on.
“But our lives changed when a group of unicorns came to our farm.” Octavia’s demeanour changed and she spat out the words angrily. “They took our jobs and left only two earth ponies on the farm. The only two with farming cutie marks. They used them to plant the oranges and just harvested all the trees by levitating them off!” Octavia cried out to Vinyl, and Vinyl instinctively raised a hoof to her face to defend herself. Octavia sighed, but no apology left her lips. Instead, she continued her story, describing how the two orange-laden earth ponies were exploited for their gift with the earth, and the unicorns raked in the profits and walked away, millions of bits richer. Oranges were a highly prized fruit for imports, and the unicorns that took over the farm milked it for all it was worth.

“Those poor ponies, their only reason for staying was their orange cutie marks.” Octavia whispered, sadly, “It was a sad sight for a young filly; these poor ponies pushed to their physical limits.”

“Those two orange-planting earth ponies must have been very poor.” Vinyl commented, and Octavia nodded vigorously.

“They were indeed. They have apple-farming relatives over in a distant town apparently, but had too many connections in Manehattan to leave. I hope the orange farmers are doing alright, now.” Octavia pensively raised a hoof to her muzzle. “I often walk past the old place, but I never see them around.”

“So, a bunch of business-minded unicorns stole your jobs and that’s why you don’t like us?” Vinyl asked cautiously, attempting to tip-toe around the issues of the mare in front of her.

“What? No, Vinyl, it’s not just that!” Octavia protested, spitting as she talked. “I moved away and everywhere, unicorns were using magic to do the stupidest things! Opening doors, moving things; other ponies use hooves, so why can’t they? It’s just unfair.”

“I see.” The unicorn in front of her muttered and rolled her eyes. “Look Octavia, you can tell me the truth.”

The grey pony looked back, startled at Vinyl's brashness, and her angry eyes narrowed.

“What do you mean?” She growled, a vicious fire now growing in her belly. "Are you calling me a liar?"

“Why don’t you like magic?” She asked, gently making her way over to the shaky earth pony and placing a tender hoof on her shoulder.
“Is everything okay, Octavia?”

Octavia met Vinyl’s eyes as tears welled up in hers, and she fiercely blinked them away.

“Everything I told you was true, you insensitive horse!” She growled angrily, and she stomped her hooves, only for her injured hoof to buckle underneath her. She fell to the floor, and whimpered pitifully before recovering her composure. She sat up with her back arched in a dignified position and eyed the unicorn with a new suspicion.

"I never said you were lying." Vinyl spoke in a low voice.

"Oh."

The two sat in an awkward silence for what felt like a millennia to Vinyl Scratch. In her youth, she had been fascinated by the behaviour of other ponies - she found her passion by causing them to dance with reckless abandon, commanded only by her hooves and the records - but she was way over her head with the mare in front of her now. She decided to take a stab in the dark and approach Octavia Melody the only way she knew how; with brutal honesty.

“Octavia, we all have fears. Your actions… they feel like they were caused by somepony driven by fear.” Vinyl stated simply, cautiously approaching the injured earth pony further. She crinkled her muzzle as she saw the damaged hoof, bruised and bleeding from the fall.

“What do you know of fear? You’re a unicorn. You can face anything.” The grey pony whispered as she clutched her hoof and winced at the pain. Vinyl opened her mouth to disagree, but was stopped by the pleading look in Octavia’s eyes. Instead, she merely gestured at her to continue. After a long pause, Octavia finally spoke, breaking the eerie atmosphere.

“I’m afraid of magic.” She admitted. In a world run by magic, Octavia was terrified to admit it, but seemingly trapped down where they were, she felt a strange sense of intimacy with the rather eccentric unicorn before her. Relief rushed over the snow-white pony and she brushed some sweat from her brow.

“The first step is admitting it.” Vinyl grinned. “Let’s talk.”

Musician Horses

Chapter Four

Happy voices filled the concert hall, flooding the rooms with lively chatter and off-key music. The sound of piano keys being smashed with heavy hooves mangled inelegantly with the trumpeting of the tubas and saxophones as ponies made their way through the crowds to get onstage for practice.

“The Manehattan Symphonic Band, first and final call.” A booming voice echoed through the foyer. A posh-looking purple pony carrying a trombone in her hooves scurried through the hall and made her way to the front of the crowd of musicians, straightening up her mane and clutching her instrument tight. She gingerly passed another group of musicians with scowls set upon their stony faces and, distracted by their glares, smacked straight into another pony.

Bam.

“Oh my; I am so sorry.” She grimaced as she felt hot blood rush to her cheeks. Extending her hoof, she helped the light grey stallion she had bumped into. Spotting the black-and-white music notes on his hip, she laughed as she realised who she’d bumped into.
“Hello, Royal Riff. It is a pleasure to see you again.” She bowed lightly to her fellow member, and he did the same in turn.

“Indeed a pleasure, Lyrica Lilac.” He uttered in a muffled rich, operatic tone of voice that he reserved for onstage performances. Gripping some sheet music in his mouth, he gestured for Lyrica to come through the side of the curtains. She followed cautiously and clumsily, holding her trombone with one hoof and walking on the remaining three. Suddenly, a grey pegasus with hair the colour of sweet honey stepped in front of her, blocking her path.

“How many is in your group?” The sharply dressed, cross-eyed grey mare asked Lyrica before she had the opportunity to follow her friend.

“Oh, uh…” She paused, struggling to think. Damn nerves! She sat back on her haunches and counted the ponies on her hooves, naming them as she went. “There’s me, Royal Riff, Noteworthy and Octavia. That makes four.” She concluded, nodding to herself. “Four ponies in all.”

“Four, you say?” The grey mare repeated, staring down at the paper in her hoof with her right eye as the other wandered. Lyrica couldn’t help but stare at the pony’s abnormal condition. The pegasus’s good eye caught the gaze of Lyrica Lilac’s own, and she blushed profusely at having been caught staring. The pegasus brushed off the awkwardness with a small smile.

“Odd. There are only three of you up there. Walk on stage and tell me, who’s the fourth missing?”

Lyrica nodded shyly and proceeded to enter from backstage, onto the wooden platform before her. The deep clip-clop of her hooves on the hard wood made her stomach do flips, and when she looked up at the ceiling, and the grand golden chandelier, with such intricate designs of sheet music in the gold, hanging from the railings above… It made her feel sick to her stomach. She lowered her ears and focused her eyes on the cold wooden stage.

“Who’s missing?” The grey mare repeated, one amber eye focused on Lyrica while the other stared in the opposite direction. Lyrica shook her nausea out of her mind and stared at the group; Noteworthy waved excitedly from the middle of the stage and Royal Riff nodded politely to her, sitting at his piano with sheet music in front of him. The spot onstage that was reserved for the second earth pony mare and her cello was nowhere in sight.

“I guess… I guess Octavia’s missing. Octavia Melody.”

“Musician horses…” The grey mare muttered under her breath. She shook her head and extended her wings, flapping them in agitation as she spoke. She picked up the radio attached to her belt with her clumsy hooves and mumbled into the receiver. As she did so, the same booming voice she had heard in the foyer echoed even louder through the performance area.
“Octavia Melody, you are requested on stage. Octavia Melody, you are requested on stage.”
Lyrica cantered up to her ensemble as the announcement rang through the building and plonked her instrument beside Noteworthy and his harp.

“You don’t suppose you’ve seen Octavia, have you?” She whispered to the blue stallion beside her.

“I’m afraid not, no.” He denied, shrugging his shoulders. He then gestured pointedly to the organiser on stage and mumbled something about being a mailmare in some feeble attempt to gossip, but his words were drowned out by the announcement of another musical ensemble.

“Sorry, ladies and gentlecolts. You’ll have to practice another time before the show.” The organiser turned to the group and ushered in the next performance, and the group was hurried offstage onto the seats.
“Next time, I suggest you make sure you have all members of your group here on time.” She stated, not unkindly, but with a tone that suggested she was growing weary with the turmoil of the day. Lyrica Lilac suspected that this was not the first slip-up she'd experienced today.

“I’m so sorry, Miss…” Noteworthy started, holding his harp in his hooves and plucking a string. He squinted to see the nametag on the young mare’s outfit. “Miss Hooves,” he began again, “I assure you Octavia is in this building. I saw her walk in when I just arrived.”

“You really should find her, then.” Miss Hooves clicked her tongue and, with a swish of her tail, turned back to the steely-eyed group of musicians now on centre-stage. The rust-coloured unicorn stallion with a bass in his forelegs shot a glare at Lyrica, and she slunk back down the aisle. His emerald eyes fell back on his instrument and he began to play, and the anger she was confronted with flowed through the music and fell on Lyrica’s ears like gryphons’ talons on a chalkboard. She cringed; the music may have sounded lovely to most, but she certainly wasn’t a fan.

"Thank Celestia I don’t need to hear the rest of this awful music." She thought to herself absent-mindedly, waltzing away from the crowd.

Lyrica made her way back to the main foyer with her instrument on her back and kicked open the heavy wooden doors with her powerful back-legs; carrying around a trombone certainly did wonders for the muscles in her legs, although the original instrument she had mastered still held a special place in her heart – and her cutie mark. A golden harp was plastered on her rump; it was such a shame Noteworthy played the harp better than she could. Shaking away the thought, she cantered inconspicuously through the sea of musicians waiting to be called to perform and called her missing friend’s name as her eyes darted back and forth, looking for her elegantly coiffed dark mane in a herd of formal hairstyles and well-groomed tails. Her purple eyes shone in the bright lights of the hall as upper-class musicians dragged their instruments across the room and sang in revoltingly loud, screeching voices, and she swept another glance around the room. Then, her eyes met a familiar unicorn mare.

“Lyra Heartstrings, my dear! It’s a pleasure to see you once more.” She said, trotting over and vigorously shaking her hoof. The mare stared in confusion for a second, when recognition washed over her face as their eyes met.

“Lyrica, right? Lovely to see you again.” Lyra replied happily, placing her own hooves over Lyrica’s and squeezing in a friendly fashion. The mint green pony levitated a golden lyre above the two and dropped it in front of her acquaintance.
“I see you’re performing tonight, as well.”

“Indeed, I am." Lyrica nodded in response, but paused when she remembered the practice. "At least, we should be. But we’ve seemingly misplaced one of our band members!” She added, laughing nervously with her hoof over her mouth. She removed it and discovered she’d accidentally wiped some lipstick off her muzzle – she turned around quickly and wiped it casually on the floor before looking around to make sure nopony was watching her. She smiled at Lyra awkwardly, and Lyra laughed a little out of pity. Lyrica wasn't as dignified as her looks would let on.

“You’re missing someone?”

“Octavia Melody. Nobody knows where she’s gone.” Lyrica shrugged, a new air of poise overcoming her as she brushed off her incident. Upon hearing the name, Lyra’s nose crinkled and she looked down at the marble floors with an emotion in her eyes that Lyrica didn’t recognise.

“She’s missing, you say? What a shame.” Lyra looked up and narrowed her golden eyes. Suddenly, she picked up her lyre and headed through the herd of musicians, with nothing but a wave of her hoof and a silent goodbye, leaving Lyrica somewhat dumbfounded. She decided to follow her, slipping in and out through the mass of stomping hooves and crashing bodies until she broke free of the herd and found herself in the hall, leading to the dressing rooms of all the performing ensembles. It was narrow, far too narrow for her liking, and she noticed the lack of art on the walls; a stark contrast to the overly-decorated foyer behind her. The floor was still made of marble, but it was cracked and broken and she sniffed the floor, to find a large chunk of marble missing from under the elongated dirty rug, with knotted marigold tassels embroidered on the shortest sides.
She wondered if there were more crumbling walls and floors in other places of the building, ones where the public rarely saw.

Lyra Heartstrings stumbled drearily through a cream-coloured door marked “HEARTSTRINGS” in gold lettering, tripping on her own clumsy hooves, and placed her instrument down on the floor. She took a quick look at her dressing room before she curled up on the tacky tangerine rug, sighing heavily. She had no intentions of meeting that awful earth pony again, not after she was snubbed in the streets earlier that day. Octavia treated both her and her mare-friend poorly, and her arrogance as she stumbled away told her that she wouldn’t be expecting an apology, should she run into her again. Confrontations like that… it was just too exhausting.

Maybe if I stay in here the whole night, I won’t have to face her. She pondered the thought, playing with the strings on her delicate golden lyre.

It was a tempting thought, to avoid another embarrassing scene like the one she'd experienced in the early morning, but she couldn’t go through with it. A chance to perform at the Canterlot Concert Hall was simply too important for her career as a musician to miss, regardless of how unpleasant the company may be. Canterlot was a massive hub of activity, and only the best of the best made it in the fair city. It was finally her turn, and she wasn’t going to let the opportunity slip through her hooves!
She dashed into the small, fairly bare wooden closet in search of her purple performance dress. Golden magic spewed from her horn as she went through article after article of clothing for the dress she was promised would be hanging in the wardrobe when she arrived, but to no avail. She threw her head back in frustration, letting her magic go in a sudden burst and tossing the clothes aside. Suddenly, there was a delicate knock on her door.

“If that’s you, Lyrica, I’m pretty busy right now. We can talk after the concert ends.” The light green unicorn yelled out in the direction of the door, before enchanting the lock with a flick of her horn. The doorknob was illuminated with a bright amber colour for a fraction of a second before fading away like breath on a cold winter morning.

“Who’s Lilac?” A familiar voice replied from the other side and drifted into Lyra’s perky ears. It was a bittersweet tone that she could recognise anywhere.

“Oh, is that you Bonbon? I’m so sorry; here, let me get that for you…” She opened the door with another piece of enchantment and welcomed her marefriend into the dressing room, and the two met in a gentle, affectionate nuzzle of noses. She gazed lovingly into the visitor’s sugary eyes and felt tears of empathy well up in her own.

“You’re so sentimental - it’s adorable.” Bonbon cooed, running her hoof down Lyra’s mane and gazing at the mare’s crinkled eyes.

“You’re pretty cute yourself.” Lyra chirped back, feeling her face flush hotly. She was thankful ponies had a thin layer of fur to hide when they blushed like she did. They’d been an item for countless moons, and Bonbon still managed to make her blush like a schoolfilly with a crush; it was almost embarrassing to the young unicorn how hard and fast she had fallen for the earth pony. They had been reacquainted after she had moved back from Canterlot to her home town; they’d known each other since filly-school, but Lyra had moved with her parents to the high-class city for their work, and she’d been grateful when she had the opportunity to move back to the simple town of Ponyville where she had grown up. She and her old friend Bonbon had moved in almost immediately, and she’d stolen the mare’s newfound heart with her kind, gentle nature and reserved personality. She was floored when her feelings were reciprocated, and she thanked Celestia that Bonbon felt the same way about her.

“Are you there?” Bonbon’s calming voice shook Lyra out of her daydream, and she found herself still clutching to the candy-coloured mare in a lovesick haze.

“Sorry.” Lyra smiled back, sheepishly. Bonbon only laughed; she had come to expect this behaviour from the relatively eccentric unicorn. She would never admit it, but she was rather fond of the way Lyra acted when it came to her. Lyra could be very brash, but she would soften her words and eyes in a way only shown to Bonbon, and she was grateful for it.

“I just came to wish you well before the concert, my dear.” Bonbon relinquished her grip on the green unicorn and shook the curls in her mane back in place before sweeping a glance around the ransacked room.

“Thanks; I think I may need it.” Lyra groaned, standing back and rubbing her head with her hooves.

“Shouldn’t you be getting ready?” Bonbon asked, wrinkling up her nose in a way she thought was cute. Lyra wasn’t going to be the one to disagree.

“Well, yes,” Lyra admitted, “But I can’t find my gown. Mind helping me look?”

“It would be my pleasure!”

A Decade of Fear

Chapter Five

Octavia quivered with a unicorn’s hoof wrapped around her neck. She felt constricted, trapped in the darkness that seemed to swallow everything but her fear. A fear that felt like a caged animal, wild and rampant in her stomach, fit to burst with utter rage and deafening anxiety.

“Calm yourself, Tavi.” Vinyl whispered reassuringly, patting her back. Instinct kicked in and Octavia felt her own hoof fly up without any provocation and smack Vinyl directly in the muzzle.

“Oh my Celestia, Vinyl I’m so sorry.” She buried her face in her hooves, embarrassed. Vinyl rubbed her sore nose and gave her earth pony companion a gentler pat of affection.

“It’s all good. Just, don’t do it again.” She lightly teased. Octavia nodded.

“Try it again. I know you can do it; just look at me and don’t think about the magic.”

“I just can’t, Vinyl!” Octavia protested, holding her ears and smothering the scar on her forehead with a well-manicured hoof. She gingerly pointed it out to the unicorn, and the light blue glow from her horn erupted in brightness for a mere second; an expression of the unicorn’s surprise.
“That’s why I don’t trust your kind of help.” She snarled, feeling a burst of adrenaline running through her veins and down her spine as anger gripped her mind and clouded her judgement. She leapt to her hooves and backed away, each deliberate step echoing her maddening thoughts through the abyss. It rang in Vinyl’s ears.

“What happened?” She asked; her gravelly voice drowned by the echoes of Octavia’s angry pacing.

“You unicorns… All of you unicorns!” She muttered, throwing her head back and crying in frustration. She began to rant, all but ignoring Vinyl as she sat and listened patiently. “Unicorns, they came at me. They jumped me! A band of unicorns. With magic!” Her voice bounced off the stone concrete like a pinball machine. “Magic, Vinyl! It wasn’t fair!”

Vinyl jumped and smacked Octavia on her cheek to snap her out of her ramblings.

Oops.

“You wouldn’t understand, Vinyl Scratch. Every time I see a unicorn now, these memories come flooding back to me, like a bullet in my head. It hurts, Vinyl; it hurts so much!” She sighed as she felt her anger drip out of her words and sink into the ground. She felt empty, like a void had opened up in her chest.
She was so very empty inside.

“It’s alright, Octavia. I’m not going to hurt you.” Vinyl shrugged, rubbing her horn. “This thing can barely levitate a suitcase! That’s why I’m a DJ – I pick up vinyls and create lightshows from my magic, but that’s all I can do.”
As a demonstration, Vinyl stood up on her hindlegs and concentrated; a bright blue burst of light shone out from the top of her horn, and it sparkled so brilliantly in the darkness. Sweat poured from her brow as she changed the lightshow from blue to white, and then to purple, casting deep shadows on the concrete floor. Octavia’s jaw dropped; the lights were absolutely beautiful. To her unprotected eyes, it looked like a multicoloured sunset. Vinyl panted and her horn shut down, leaving only a faint glow of magic as she lowered back to her forelegs, and she grinned proudly at her captive audience of one.

“That was very blinding… But very pretty.” Octavia muttered, with spots of light still burned in her eyes.

“Thank you, thank you.” She snorted and bowed light-heartedly to the blinded earth pony. “Not all unicorns have the power to attack. I certainly don't.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure…” Octavia muttered again, rubbing her eyes. However this time, there was lightness in her voice that Vinyl hadn’t heard before. It made her heart leap to her throat; she was finally making progress with the fragile pony before her.

“Now, sit down Tavi, and tell Auntie Scratch about this problem of yours.” She cooed delightedly, happy she was making headway.

“Alright, Vinyl,” She agreed, ignoring the somewhat condescending tone in Vinyl's voice, “But you have to promise not to tell anypony about it. You know how these Canterlot types gossip.” She narrowed her eyes as she faintly recalled distant memories of an old, popular newspaper proclaiming Equestria’s ruler sleeps on the job, with an unflattering photo to boot. Now, that was certainly something that was on everypony’s lips.

“Of course, Octavia; I am a pony of my word.” Vinyl assured with a twitch of her ears and a smile plastered to her face. Octavia breathed a sigh, and began to tell a tale of her memories that she hadn’t divulged to another living pony for more than a decade.

The day began just like any other in Octavia Melody’s life. The weather pegasi had begun their cloudbursting duties in hard-hats and shiny bright safety vests, kicking clouds and clearing the skies for a new day to begin in Manehattan. Greeting the day with a wide, childlike smile, the young Octavia left her apartment and walked to the farm she worked. Prancing down the main-streets and passing many other ponies on their own commute to work, she was whistling a happy tune with a spring in her usually-cheerful step. Spotting her familiar shortcut on the way to the farm, she crossed the street and ducked through a violently green thicket of brambles to scramble through a dirt roadway. The way she chose ran straight through an abandoned hayfield before cutting short on the other side of the forest, clipping the Everfree before it ended on the main street. It cut at least twenty minutes of her walking time, and Octavia hated to be tardy. She crawled through the foliage – oh, how she hated the thorny brambles that scratched her nicely-groomed coat – and she bounded through the hayfield with the same happy-go-lucky demeanour.
Suddenly, as her hooves touched the dirt on the other side of the bramble thicket, her vision blurred and her view was bathed in a sickly green light. Her view obscured, she twitched and writhed in panic, but it was ultimately useless as she felt herself being plucked off the earth and hung in the air, gripped only by an aura of disgusting, sparkling magic, as green as the brambles below her. She shouted at the top of her lungs, demanding her freedom, but her cries were unanswered. A large heavy-set stallion with piercing eyes and a large horn, glowing with the same colour as the aura surrounding the panicking pony, stepped out from the shadows of the Everfree Forest and glared at her. His angry eyes bore into Octavia’s skull and shot chills up and down her spine in a feeling she’d never felt before – it was a feeling of complete helplessness. The stallion flicked his jet-black mane to the side of his head and brushed a stray leaf off his steel coat, not once breaking eye contact with the earth pony in his cold, hard grip. She felt her body getting warmer and warmer as invisible flames licked her flailing hooves.

“Beautiful day for breaking a pony’s legs, wouldn’t you agree?” He whispered in a dead calm, bringing the floating Octavia up to his snout and snarling at her. Octavia whimpered at the smell of decay coming from the stallion’s foul breath.

“Wh- What do you want from me?” Octavia stammered nervously, darting her eyes around the field, struggling to focus and glancing at the thick grass in a vain hope for somepony to come and help her.

“It’s very simple, really. I will let you go if you do one small thing for me…” The unicorn growled, keeping a smile stitched on his face like an old, discarded doll with thread for a mouth.

“I’ll do anything, anything you ask!” Octavia cried, big fat tears rolling down her cheeks and dampening her soft fur. She gripped her head tight as the burning sensation grew, and begged for her attacker to let her go. Suddenly, two other unicorns, one a cream-coloured mare and the other a turquoise stallion the colour of the sky, stepped out from the foliage of the Everfree border and grimaced at the sight of the earth pony.

“What’s she doing here?” The mare sneered, baring large, yellowing canine teeth that Octavia hadn’t seen before on another pony. The pony smiled devilishly at the petrified earth pony as she grabbed a rock from behind her hoof and began rubbing it on her teeth, filing them down to a point. Octavia winced at the sight. So that’s how she did it.

“You’ll see.” Promised the stallion with magic flowing through his horn, and in an instant, the colours changed from a sickly green to a piercing purple. Octavia screamed as the flames increased tenfold and pain wracked through her body like a lightning strike, piercing the top of her skull, boring through the bone like a rat in the summer in an attempt to escape the unforgiving heat of the day. Just as suddenly as it began, the stallion ceased his attack and dropped Octavia, still maintaining a tender grip on her tail. He waltzed up to the helpless earth pony and breathed in her scent. He could smell fear, and he liked it.

“Please don’t hurt me!” Octavia whimpered pitifully, her hooves clamped to the top of her head. The two unicorns behind the stallion snickered.

“I’ll let you live if you do just one thing for me…” The stallion whispered in Octavia’s ringing ears.

“Anything, just please leave me alone!” She howled in anguish as the stallion trod on the base of her tail.

“Leave the farm. Don’t return.”

“Back off our territory, useless earth pony.” The mare sneered behind the attacking stallion, and a shot of approval was cast from the ringleader in her direction. In the mare’s empty, stormy eyes, a glimpse of satisfaction rippled like a drop of rain in a lake on an overcast afternoon.

“What do you mean?” Octavia whimpered again with big, fat tears in her eyes. She could barely see her surroundings through the haze of pain in her head. She reached up to feel her forehead and a thin trickle of black liquid poured down her hoof. She grimaced in pain – could that be blood?

“You’re stealing our profit, you see,” The quiet turquoise stallion piped up at last, his steely tone caused what felt like the ground shaking to the poor Octavia. His eyes flashed dangerously like lightning. “We can’t have that, no. Even if you quit, they would want to hire your kind back. No, we won’t have that; we need to make it clear that earth ponies aren’t fit to work on the orange farm. We need you to disappear.”
The words shot through Octavia’s head like a bullet to her brain, and fear gripped her body, filling her like wildfire in her soul.
Her vision blurred, and everything went dark.

Octavia spoke in a hushed voice as she divulged her story to the enraptured unicorn in front of her. Her large purple eyes were wet with memories and, bathed in the glow of Vinyl’s light, she felt at peace with what happened for the first time in those years.

“When I woke up, they were gone. I never went back to the farm again.” She whispered. “It was hard; my only source of income was snatched from me. So, I travelled with my cello. That’s how I got where I am today.”
Her voice quivered as she spoke, gingerly tracing over the memories that had haunted her for so long. She shut her eyes tight, and saw a flash of the stallion, whose eyes were like lightning as they struck her very core and left white scars of hatred in her mind.
“I don’t even know where my family is, anymore. My parents left Manehattan without me and my cousin disappeared. I worry every day what those unicorns did to her.”

“I’m so sorry that happened to you, but I promise you that magic isn’t only for harming, Tavi.” Vinyl said, speaking softly in tune with Octavia’s quaking figure. The shadow cast from her glowing horn blended with the concrete floor, and it made the room feel so much bigger. She rose to her hooves again and looked up at the ceiling, to find the small hole where they had both fallen through. Suddenly, she hatched an idea - a long shot, no doubt, but worth a try.

“Trust me on this, Tavi. It’ll be okay, but I need to use magic to escape. I can't levitate myself, but I can levitate other objects... maybe I will be able to lift you up. Will that be okay?” Vinyl gently cooed, afraid of her new friends’ reaction. She was relieved when she received a faint nod from the earth pony in reply, and she once again rose to her hind legs with her horn raised in the air.
It was her time to shine.
She concentrated the magic in her, and it erupted from her horn in the form of levitation. She struggled and strained, and Octavia felt the world fall from around her as she was picked up by a gentle blue aura. She froze in fear and shut her eyes tight, curling into a small ball as she floated upwards. She felt a searing pain in her hoof, and she cradled it lightly as she rose higher. The aura twitched and faded ever so slightly and Vinyl gasped, struggling to lift the dead weight of another pony. She glanced upwards and saw the fear in Octavia's eyes, and a rush of pride drove her magic further, up to the rafters as the entire void seemed to glow. The unicorn’s horn was alight with a massive magical surge as she levitated the earth pony, and she found herself nearing the light. As she got closer, a familiar voice filled Octavia’s ears.

“OCTAVIA!” A rich voice screamed from the building atop the concrete foundations. “WE’RE ON IN FIVE!”

Oh, ponyfeathers. She had to perform! Shock rippled through her skin like electricity and twinged her injured hoof, and her breath caught in her throat; she had worked too long for this moment, to perform for the Canterlot Elite, to play her cello with the other great musicians of her time. One day, her name would be in the stars themselves to shine upon her work as she performed solo for the royal goddess Princess Celestia herself, her own personal musician. But first, she had to impress the audience tonight, regardless of the pain in her hoof. She had worked too hard to let this bring her down now.

Noteworthy wandered into the dressing room, calling out Octavia's name and getting increasingly frustrated with each one that went unanswered. Gingerly, he stepped over the hole, and was shocked at what he saw underneath his hooves.

"YOU CAN FLY?" Noteworthy's jaw dropped.
"You numbskull, Vinyl's levitating me. Help me, for pony's sake!" Octavia cried, and Noteworthy reached into the hole as far as he could to grab her. He grabbed the very end of her flailing tail and, with the tail in his teeth, he pulled with all his might. Octavia clenched her teeth through the pain and reached down for Vinyl to grab her hoof, and she very gratefully accepted it. Holding on for dear life, she gripped the extremities with every last bit of energy she had left.
Noteworthy, pulling the tail of his band member, snorted in satisfaction as Octavia reached the top and pulled her dead-weight through the crumbling floorboards, clenching her teeth through the shooting pain in her hoof, with her new unicorn friend weakly gripping her legs. Noteworthy gave a final tug and, with a crash and crumble of wood and marble, they all collapsed on the ground. Huffing and puffing, Octavia barely managed to pull herself to her three good hooves before Noteworthy grabbed her and tried to pull her towards the door.

“Wait!” Octavia protested, “I don’t have my cello!”

Vinyl smiled and gestured to the door; there, rested her prize cello. It was somewhat beaten and battered, but still in playable condition.
“I threw it out of the hole just before we tumbled in. What fell with us is anypony’s guess, but I protected your precious instrument.” She teased lightly, poking a light-pink tongue out at the earth pony. Octavia smiled and attacked Vinyl in a massive hug that went on for an eternity, as Vinyl breathed in the scent of the happy pony and Octavia nuzzled her neck.

“Thank you, Vinyl. Thank you for everything.” She uttered sincerely, staring into Vinyl’s bright magenta eyes. They held an intelligent glare of kindness, and Octavia felt her heart flutter in a feeling she’d never realised before. They smiled kindly and tenderly at the other, and their muzzles met in a gentle kiss.

“Ugh.” Noteworthy gagged with a choking motion; he was certainly not a sentimental pony. He rolled his eyes at the public display of affection and proceeded to trot out the door, dragging Octavia’s cello with him in an attempt to ignore the commotion behind him.

“What a sourpony.” Vinyl snorted in an unladylike fashion with her muzzle crinkled. Octavia laughed and nodded playfully in agreement, tugging at her purple bowtie in an attempt to calm her nerves. They hugged once more before the grey earth pony left for the stage with Noteworthy, leaving a dazed Vinyl behind them, smiling stupidly and giggling to herself.
It was her first kiss.

The Performance

Chapter Six

Hushed crowds of well-dressed ponies gathered in the dimly-lit concert area with tickets in their hooves, awaiting the performance. The royal Princess Celestia was amongst the nobles who had come to watch the showcase; she sat at the back of the crowd on a high-top balcony with her armour and crown polished to the highest degree. The patterns intricacy carved on the wooden beams holding the platform in the air caught her eye as they shined and shimmered by the warm glow of her flowing, pastel mane and she smiled gently at the sight. The princess was hardly ever seen with emotion in her face, but in her empty magenta eyes held a distant memory of watching musicians perform brilliant melodies a thousand years ago, with her young sister by her side, her ears embracing every note that came from the stage. She couldn’t help but long for her sister, a million miles away from the place she once called home.

Princess Luna, dearest sister, you will soon return to my side. She inwardly sighed, before turned back to the stage.

Below the royal princess, the large crowd sat in puffy red seats awaiting the performances. Bonbon took a seat at the very edge of the rows of seats and gripped a program in her hooves, struggling to read in the dimly lit atmosphere.
“Need some help?” A gravelly voice whispered to Bonbon, and she jumped out of her seat in surprise, accidentally kicking the grumpy red stallion sitting next to her. Bonbon apologised profusely, only to have an indignant snort from the stallion in reply.
“Oops.” She whispered to Vinyl, who was struggling to keep in her laughter.
“It’s okay.” She replied, giggling ever so slightly as she lit up her horn and enchanted the pamphlet. It began to glow lightly in Bonbon’s hooves. She turned to thank the unicorn, but she had already left to return working. She saw the unicorn lead a pair of energetic pegasi to their seats, and she illuminated their chairs for them as they clambered in and settled down in anticipation of the show.

She must work here, She observed, I wonder if she’s run into that earth pony with the purple bowtie yet. She’d have a field day with the amount of unicorn magic in here.

Bonbon shook the amusing thought out of her mind and watched as more and more ponies arrived at the concert hall, taking their seats and muttering to each other. She took the time to read the booklet, drinking in the atmosphere of buzzing excitement and refined tastes that surrounded her; it all delighted her like a fine, vintage wine. She was drunk on the rich elegance of the moment, and she giggled tastelessly. She truly felt like an important pony, sitting amongst the rich and famous. Even the stoic and reserved goddess of Equestria sat behind her, waiting for the show to begin. It thrilled her to the bone, every minute of it. She had wanted so desperately to feel like these ponies surrounding her did, full of grace and elegance and poise. All her life, she’d wanted to visit the city of Canterlot and take in the sights of the famous city. She had catered to them before, with her candy-making impressing the posh fillies and colts of the fair city, and she had acquired a taste for the poise and elegance that was the Canterlot elite. Now, waiting for her marefriend to play her lyre in front of thousands, she felt so alive. She was bursting with pride, and cackled lightly to herself again. The sights, the smells, the tastes, the entire atmosphere of the moment; she would hold it with her for all her days.

Backstage, the commotion was deafening for Octavia Melody. Even though she was apart from the others, the noises around her were a stark contrast to the silence in the darkness that she had been trapped in for what felt like days. She clumsily wiped the sweat off her face with her one good hoof as a small, chubby nurse with a shining face who introduced herself as Nurse Snowheart wrapped her injury with padded gauze and sloppily-applied bandages. Nurse Snowheart brushed a piece of blue hair aside behind her ears and inspected the damaged hand, now bandaged to the best of her ability.

“I’m so sorry, but this is unfortunately the best I can do. I’m a psychiatric nurse, so this isn’t exactly my speciality.” She admitted with a whine, and Octavia accepted the apology with grace.

“I’m just glad there was an audience member to help.”

“Oh, yes, well I’m actually here for Lyra Heartstrings, you see. One of her dear friends is a patient under my watch, and I’m close friends with her.”

At the name, Octavia blushed and lowered her ears in embarrassment.
“Oh, you know her? That’s nice.” She muttered.

“Indeed. Now, hold still while I tighten these for you…” Snowheart said, garbled with the bandages in her mouth. Raising to her backlegs, she pulled them tight over Octavia’s injury, and tied them in place. She wiped the sweat off her brow and nodded to herself.
“There. That’ll keep.”

“Thank you so much, Nurse.” Octavia breathed, cradling her newly-bandaged hoof.

“Don’t mention it. I’ll have to tell Lyra Heartstrings I met you! She’s a fan, you know.” Nurse Snowheart cheered, and Octavia’s protests fell on deaf ears as she exited the hall in search of her Ponyville friend.

The performance, despite all the hardships and tribulations, went off without a hitch. The crowd sat riveted to their seats as music filled the hall with elegance that only musicians of the highest calibre could muster and the ponies on stage each took their turns playing for the adoring herd. Miss Hooves sat at the front of the audience and smiled gratefully at Lyrica and Noteworthy as they performed on stage for their efforts in rescuing their stranded musician friend; after all, it was Lyrica who suggested to Noteworthy to check her dressing room. Thanks to them, the performance felt like a success to her. A clumsy mare like herself was used to things going wrong with her in charge, so it was a massive relief for her to have the concert go perfectly. The brown stallion next to her with an hourglass on his flank and a green tie around his neck held her hoof through the concert and preened her wings in an act to calm her frayed nerves, and the ditzy pony was glad to have him by her side. The one who received the greatest applause, however, was Octavia at her cello, playing through the pain of her sloppily-bandaged hoof, and the loudest cheers, booming calls and stomping hooves came from the snow-white unicorn with the electric mane that saved her life.
Meeting her backstage, Vinyl galloped to meet Octavia and nuzzled her gently in congratulations. She hugged her tightly back, and the two shared a second show of affection.

“I heard you managed to perform tonight, Miss Melody.” A trying voice shimmered in the air in the pair’s direction. Octavia’s ears shot up from her skull and she pulled Vinyl off of her, brushing herself off and coughing awkwardly. Vinyl raised her hoof to complain, but quickly put it back when she saw the appalled look in both the mare’s faces.

“Hello, Lyra.” She smiled half-heartedly. A wave of shame engulfed her when she looked in the mare’s sad eyes and she lowered her ears, kicking at the ground gently with her hoof. Lyra could have sworn that this Octavia almost felt… well, humiliated. A very different pony to the one she’d run into that morning, that’s for sure.

Octavia spoke with her tail hanging low and her ears flat against her head. “I’m sorry for how I acted to you today. You were right; there was no need for it. I’m sorry I treated you so badly, Lyra Heartstrings.”

“It’s okay, Miss Melody, really it is.” Lyra’s eyes lit up and she smiled warmly, and Octavia felt a great burden lifted off her shoulders as she saw the light return to Lyra’s eyes. Maybe things were looking up for her now after all? She’d made a new unicorn friend, and a unicorn lover, all in the same day. Maybe, just maybe, she had been wrong all these years.

“Please,” She beamed, speaking in a harmonious tone, “call me Octavia.”

END.