Breaking the Silence (Discorded Octavia)
It had been about three months since the Discord incident. The ponies of Ponyville had just started to recover from the disaster that it was, as the event moved towards the the back of their minds. However, this was not the case for Octavia. She still had the event fresh on her mind.
It seemed to her that things would never be the same. The psychiatrist had diagnosed her with post-traumatic-stress disorder, and he also said that there was probably more to be discovered, but that would come later. Right now she had told her to relax for the weekend and try not to think about the whole thing. She swore to herself that she would occupy her mind somehow because she tended to let her mind wander when she got bored. Lately it had wandered back to the Discord incident. She could still hear the awful, ear wrenching sounds that he had made with her cello. She remembered painfully his catastrophic attempt to play, and all of the strings that he had broken. She even remembered almost enjoying the horrid sound, which is what really disturbed her. Part of her wanted to hear him play one more time, but she knew that it would never happen. To her surprise, a tear fell at this thought.
Octavia shook her head when she realized that her mind had wandered too far. Maybe I should take a walk, she thought. She had just moved to Ponyville recently for reasons that she couldn’t understand. She just didn’t feel comfortable in Canterlot anymore.
The grey pony walked around trying to get used to her new surroundings. It was certainly much different than Canterlot. The streets were dirt instead of asphalt, the buildings were spaced far apart, and there was a happy feeling in the air, not to mention nopony was dressed up. It was such a simple lifestyle. Octavia dreaded this thought, but kept walking. She kept walking until she reached Sweet Apple Acres, and then decided to turn around.
On her way back she noticed a small ensemble playing in the town square. They weren’t very great, in fact they reminded her of the sounds Discord had molested her ears with. It pleased her almost. A grin began to spread across her face as she tapped her hoof to the music. She realized what was happening when she began to bob her head. What is happening to me? The whole thing was just too much, so she galloped away towards her house.
She got back to her house and slammed the door shut. The music was still playing in her head and it wouldn’t stop. Octavia walked over to her couch and sat down, mulling over the day she had had. She began talking to herself. “What is becoming of me?” she asked herself, “Am I becoming one of them? This can’t be!” She thought back to her disturbing behaviour at town square. The hoof-tapping, the head-bobbing, and the appreciation of the horrible music had all been frightening.
Octavia had finally reached her emotional peak when another thought entered her mind. Actually, this was more of an impulse. She went towards her cello case where her most prized possession resided. Still unaware of what she was doing, she pulled out her cello and bow and began to play. She was shocked at the sound that had been emitted from the large instrument. The screech was surely loud enough to be heard all the way from Canterlot. It didn’t stop there though, and she kept playing. Soon enough she could recognize Marezart’s No. 25 played by a wretched hoof. Each note came out as loud and as ear shattering as the last, and as usual she began to like it. Octavia stopped being surprised at that fact at this point. She began to lose control of herself and became enveloped in the horrid sounds that sounded so sweet to her.
Eventually she stopped playing and began to sob. Little did she know that this would be her last sane moment.
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There was a knocking on Octavia’s door. “Hey Octavia, I heard that you just moved into town today and--” Twilight stopped mid sentence as a loud, painful sound emitted from the house. “Octavia?” She was now concerned. What she had heard seemed to have been her cello, but she couldn’t be sure. It was horrendous. She heard it again, only this time it was louder.
Twilight couldn’t stand it anymore. Her horn glowed as she loosened the tumblers in the door and threw it open, and what she saw flabbergasted her. Octavia stood next to her instrument with her bow at the ready, about to play another note. When she did it nearly destroyed Twilight’s eardrums.”Octavia!” Twilight shouted. But it was in vain. Not only did she keep playing, but she played louder.
“It looks like I’m starting to gather an audience!” She said as she stopped playing and looked at Twilight, “Allow me to play another!”
“No! Stop! Please, I just can’t take it!” Twilight cringed as she played another deafening note. If I’m deaf then I won’t have to submit to this torture any longer. She thought to herself. In that instant her ears began to bleed. The pain began to subside and she couldn’t hear the cello anymore. Sweet silence had surrounded her as she began to slip out of consciousness.
Octavia walked over to the unconscious pony and frowned “Apparently some ponies can’t appreciate good music,” she looked at Twilight and nudged her with her hoof, “I suppose I should set her on my bed until she wakes up . . .” She picked her up and set her on her back so that it would be easy to maneuver her into her room. She set Twilight on the bed and plugged her ears to stop the bleeding. “Wouldn’t want any blood stains on my new sheets now, would I?” she said with a slight chuckle.
An idea sprung into Octavia’s head as she walked back into her livingroom. Perhaps a solo at the town hall would help me gather some fans. The idea seemed so magnificent that she headed down straight away.
It was a short walk hand she made haste as well. She was in the town square in well under twenty minutes. Nopony seemed to notice as she set up her instrument in the same place the ensemble had played earlier. Once she had set up her cello, she looked around. Nopony’s paying any attention. I’ll play a fanfare to open their ears. That’ll get them. Octavia moved her bow across the strings, making the music the she had grown so fond of over the last few hours.
When she finished her piece she saw that ponies were covering their ears with their hooves. “No matter,” she said, “I’ll just have to play LOUDER!” she shouted, in angry insanity. The sound of her cello reverberated around ponyville as ponies as far away as Manehattan heard the dreadful, furious song. Not as bad as those in Ponyville though. Everypony within a two-hundred foot radius was either knocked unconscious or killed by the the sound.
Octavia was pouring her anger into the cello. The more she played, the angrier she got because ponies were falling every other second. Whether they had died or simply gone unconscious, it didn’t matter to her. Nopony gave her music a chance before the passed out or died. There was no applause, no cheering, no adoration. All she had was a bunch of ponies that weren’t willing to try something different, and shrieked in terror because they disliked it. This fed her anger to the point where the music was loud and atrocious as ever.
Soon enough, Octavia had finished her song and put her cello away. she had given up on these ponies. They went so far as to insult her by dying! The few ponies that had survived were either unconscious or shrieking still because their eardrums had exploded. But among the crowd she noticed one pony who seemed unphased. A one, Pinkemena Diane Pie stood amongst the fallen ponies. The pink mare’s mane and tail lay entirely flat, and she had a wild look in her eye. Octavia stared at her in amazement. “Encore” she said simply.
