DEATH BY CELLO
Octavia shut her eyes and drew in a long, deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then let it out in a slow steady stream. She could feel her face heating up as her blood began to pump faster throughout her body from her quickening heart rate. A small bead of sweat ran down the side of her temple and down her cheek before disappearing into the collar around her neck. She stood firmly, her body strict with anxiety, outside the doors of the Elite Equestrian Orchestra, the most prestige and famous of all Equestrian musical groups. She hoisted her cello case onto her back, and slowly pushed the doors open.
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It had been Octavia’s dream since she was a mere filly to join the Elite Orchestra. She had dedicated her entire life to the mastery of music, and would spend hours upon hours each day secluding herself in the study of musical application and instrumental practice. By the age of twelve, she had already been accepted into some of the most renowned musical schools for gifted filly musicians. Upon entering her twenties, she was accepted into the Canterlot Royal Orchestra, and has been their lead cellist ever since.
Despite being a very accomplished young musician, the Elite Equestrian Orchestra had never accepted her entry applications. She didn’t know whether it was because she was still a bit too young, or simply the Elite Orchestra didn’t think she was talented enough. Whatever the reason, she continued to do what any professional musician would do… practice, practice, and practice some more.
After nearly ten years of playing for innumerable Canterlot banquets, uncountable galas, and a seemingly endless amount of special ceremonies and parties, the day finally arrived when the Elite Orchestra accepted her application to join their ranks. After submitting her resignation from the Canterlot Orchestra, she wasted no time in packing her things and embracing her dream.
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Octavia’s anxiety increased as she slowly strolled through the practice hall. Her entrance had grabbed the attention of nearly all the musicians, who had halted their preparations and practices, and stared at her questioningly. The room was filled with almost a hundred of Equestria’s finest and most talented musical artists, all very fancily dressed as they would an official performance. Although Octavia was very excited to finally be considered a part of them, her body froze and her stomach twisted and turned in nervous unease as they all gazed at her as if she was a lowly pest not worthy to stand in their presence.
After a few short seconds, they all reverted their stares back to their preparations. Octavia breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she felt the pressure lifted from her shoulders. She began to slowly make her way across the floor again, trying her best not to look into the eyes of anypony around her. As she traveled, she could sense several gazes falling across her again. Their glares felt as if they penetrated her soul and were judging her very essence. The severe discomfort only pushed her forward through the crowd; her eyes locked dead ahead.
As she spotted the cello section, she quickened her pace away from the arbitrary scrutiny of the musicians and settled into her designated seat. She had managed to earn the sixth chair seating, meaning her audition was the sixth best out of all of them. Of course, she had always been a first chair musician at smaller orchestras, but earning sixth for the Elite Orchestra was more of an honor than she could hope for. She uncased her cello, set up her stand and began her usual warm-up practices. As she practiced, she could feel several more glares cross over her, judging her musical ability. Although her body tightened up and began to feel a bit nauseas, she gracefully continued through her practicing, trying her best to ignore the others.
Twenty minutes had passed, and any judgmental staring at ceased. The musicians had finally seemed to become comfortable with her presence. Octavia was finally relaxing; her body gently leaning back and resting on her chair with her cello lounged against her shoulder. It was nearing the time that the director would arrive and begin the day’s practices, and Octavia was finally beginning to feel excited. She heard the doors click open behind her, and assuming it was the director finally arriving, she turned to look. As her glance met the entryway, however, her face turned pale with disgust. Walking through the hall now was not the director, but a male Earth Pony by the name of Bass Clef; a life-long cello rival of Octavia. His coat was a very light tan, and his mane and tail were a vibrant blonde. He wore a very expensive looking black tuxedo and bowtie, and for a cutie mark he had, of course, a bass clef. He strutted across the hall with his head held high and a smirk across his face. He arrived in the cello section and plopped himself down in the fifth seat chair.
“Well, well, well! Octavia! So good to see you again! Looks like you finally managed to get into a descent orchestra for once. I sure hope you’ve learned to make your cello stop making those awful ‘dying cat’ noises,” he mocked with a distinct smugness.
“Shut up, Bass!” Octavia quietly barked. “You know I’m better than you.”
“But of course, 'Tavi'. That is exactly why it took you ten years to even get here, not to mention having one less seating than me,” he continued with sarcastic mocking. Octavia’s face began to flare red with anger.
“Don’t call me Tavi!” she yelled, just loud enough to draw the attention of those nearby. Octavia began to blush in embarrassment as the previous glares of disgust resumed. She began to crouch down into her chair in a desperate attempt to escape the harsh on-looking. She got lucky, however, as the doors to the hall were thrust open, and quickly striding in was the director. The attention was taken off Octavia as the musicians scrambled to ready themselves in their seats.
“Alright hurry up, hurry up! Everyone sit down and be quiet! We’re running late,” the director ordered as the musicians readied their instruments and rested in their seats. “We have three ensembles to get through today and I want them to be perfect!”
After nearly half an hour of the director making sure every instrument was perfectly in tune, he returned to his pedestal, and with three taps of his baton, the entire symphony poised their instruments in perfect synchronization. The first piece of music they practiced was a light fantasy theme, based mostly on the string instruments of the ensemble. Octavia played through it beautifully, her music gliding along through the chords as if it were part of her being. Every single note that emanated from the instrument was like a chorus of angels. Octavia put on a small smile, for she could only be proud of the beautiful form of art she was creating. However, her smile turned into a sneer as she heard the tune of the ensemble change.
The song had now split, the first through fifth chairs playing the melody, and the remaining chairs playing the harmony. Octavia would normally be very content with whatever part she had to play, but the thought of Bass Clef outdoing her just enough that he would be one to play the melody of the piece agitated her. Her visage turned fierce as her eyes focused in frustration. Her shoulders tensed, and her grip on the instrument tightened. Without even realizing it, she began to play her cello violently, pressuring the bow up against the strings and playing them aggressively. She soon began to lose tempo, and started playing her section far louder than what was written on the sheet music.
"Stop, stop, stop!" the director yelled as he violently waved his hoof and tapped his baton ferociously on his stand, signaling the band to halt their performance. Octavia snapped back and blushed a deep red, realizing what she had been doing.
"What is that god-awful noise coming from the cello line!?" the director again yelled angrily across the room. Octavia slowly shrunk in her seat, trying to avoid attention, but all had already set their glares upon her, and looked at her with vengeful eyes.
"Ms. Octavia, I don't know how they read music in Canterlot, but here we follow what's on the sheet! You would do wise to play what you are supposed to and not start your own solo of whatever that awful noise was that you were making!" the director hollered across the hall, his eyes red with fury.
"My apologies," Octavia quietly wept out, trying to hold herself back from crying due to the embarrassment. She kept her sight on the floor in front of her, not having the courage to raise her head and meet the eyes of her fellow musicians. She sat perfectly still in her seat, albeit a small tremble, as the rest averted their gazes, one by one, back to the director.
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The next morning, Octavia awoke from an almost completely sleepless night. Her first day in the Elite Orchestra had gone so horribly wrong, that she stayed up all night, twisting and turning in her bed trying to dismiss the dreadful memories. No matter how much she writhed and tried to focus on sleep, the recollections of the practice just wouldn't leave her thoughts.
She crawled out of bed; her mane and tail an absolute mess. Her eyes drooped with heavy black underlines, and she could do nothing but softly grumble. After a slow and groggy walk to her wash room, she rubbed her eyes and wrapped her hoof around the nearest comb and began to set her mane straight. As she tugged at her knotted hair, she looked at herself in the mirror, and surprisingly began to feel a bit better.
"You know," she said to herself. "Yesterday was just a day of bad luck. I may have got off to a horrible start, but today is a new day! I'll go into this with high spirits!" She quickly finished grooming herself, threw on her neck piece, and was out the door. Though she had managed to cheer herself up, she was completely unaware of what awaited her at the practice hall.
Before leaving the day before, Octavia had stored her Cello in one of the lockers provided by the establishment. As she pranced through the practice hall, she swore she could hear a small snickering coming from within the crowd, but due to her cheery attitude, she ignored it. As she arrived at her locker, the snickering increased and got louder, forcing Octavia to take notice of it. Worry suddenly began to overtake her. Were they just laughing at her because of the day before, or were they laughing because of something new? Her body again synched up with nervousness as she pulled her case from the locker. She slowly opened the lid, and as she looked down upon her instrument, her eyes widened with horror.
Laying in the case was her cello, not a scratch on it, except for every single string was snapped and frayed. Laying next to the cello was a single note that read 'Problem Solved'. Octavia cradled her cello in her arms, almost ready to cry as the crowd of musicians erupted into laughter.
"You should probably get that fixed, Tavi," Bass Clef mocked as strutted by. "I would hate for you to have to miss practice. Octavia had almost lost her cool. Her grip tightened around the handle of the cello; her eyebrows narrowing in. She could feel herself losing control, and almost swung the cello violently at Bass, however she managed to retain her composure. It was her dream to get into this Orchestra, and she wasn't about to let their antagonizing ruin it.
She was unfortunately forced to skip practice that day, due to lack-of-instrument. She spent the day heading into the local town to buy more strings for her cello. After an hour of searching she finally located the music shop at the other end of town. As she approached the door, a familiar figure exited the structure.
"Vinyl!" she yelped, recognizing the pony. "What are you doing all the way out here? This is miles from Ponyville." Vinyl Scratch and Octavia had been friends since they were fillies. They shared a heavy affection for music, and despite their highly opposing taste in genres, they had managed to remain friends ever since.
"Oh hey Tavi!" Vinyl greeted her friend. "I forgot you moved out here. How are things with that big fancy orchestra you got into?" Octavia's face dropped in disgust.
"Ugh, horrible. All the other musicians immediately looked down on me the moment I walked through the door, Bass Clef got a chair higher than me, and this morning they cut the strings on my Cello... but otherwise, fine."
"Wow, sounds like you got it rough. Well stick with it. Things are bound to get better eventually. As for me, this is the store that sells the equipment I use. It's some high quality stuff. I've been coming here for years! I take it you need to buy new strings? Just mention to the clerk that we're friends and he'll give them to you for free." The DJ pony replied.
"Well thanks Vinyl. It was nice to bump into you. It brightened my day a bit. We should catch up sometime," Octavia said with a smile.
"No problem! You have my number, just give me a call! Well I have to get running now, got alot to do today. I got a gig in Canterlot this evening. Keep it cool, Tavi!" Vinyl waved her hoof and trotted off into town.
Just as Vinyl had said, the mere mention of their friendship was enough to get her a brand new set of high quality strings for absolutely no cost. Content with this more fortunate turn of events, she happily trotted home where she applied the new strings and tuned her instrument. She practiced her musical pieces by herself that night to make up for the lost practice session. She was determined to go into day three of practice and show those snobs that she was far superior to them.
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Morning came and Octavia was feeling on top of the world. She had a great night sleep, and she greeted the dawn with a perky attitude, determined to put those lousy fellow musicians of hers in their place. She shouldered her cello case, stood up tall, and waltz out the door as if she were a queen.
Arriving at the practice hall, the ensemble of musicians immediately began to snicker, but were soon silenced as they noticed her positive appearance. She was completely unfazed by their sneers, and pranced with her head held high towards her seat.
"You seem unusually happy today," greeted a familiar but not-so-friendly voice. "Did the Children's Cellist group finally accept you as one of their own?" Octavia smirked as she prepared her cello.
"Taunt me all you want, Bass, you can't ruin my mood today. I'm going to set everything straight."
"Whatever you say, Tavi," Bass Clef chuckled as he prepared his own cello.
Octavia breezed through her warm-up routine and mentally prepared herself for the day's practice. It wasn't long until the director arrived, and after a quick round of tuning, he readied the orchestra to play through the first ensemble.
Octavia played through just as beautifully as she had on day one without losing her focus on the music in front of her. Even as she switched over to the harmony and Bass began the melody, she didn't let it bother her. She knew that if she did, she'd just start screwing up the music, and it would only worsen her position. She continued through it, paying no attention to Bass or the other cellists.
Things were going perfectly fine, until suddenly the bass of her cello jutted out to the side, and the whole instrument tumbled out of her hooves and onto the floor, making a horrible racket that interrupted the entire composition. At first she didn't know what happened, but her eyebrows soon furrowed as she saw Bass Clef's right hoof slowly retreat across the floor and back to his chair. The arrogant pony had the nerve to kick her cello out from under her. She opened her mouth to yell, but was cut off by the director.
"Ms. Octavia, what in Equestria is going on back there?! How hard can it be to keep a hold on your instrument?!" The directors face was red with anger. He was already fed up with her due to her screw up on day one and her missed practice, and now his fury had been driven to a new height. Octavia quickly stood up to defend herself.
"But it wasn't me sir, Bass Clef ki-"
"I don't want to hear any excuses!" The director hollered again. "Just sit down and don't make anymore screw-ups!" Octavia, despite knowing she should have urged what Bass Clef had done, couldn't help but shrink back into her seat. She unfortunately didn't have the courage to stand up to the director, especially when he was this angry. She turned her eyes to Bass Clef, who was snickering to himself, as well as the rest of the cello line. She knew she needed to keep calm, but in her mind was brewing an incredible rage, one that would make even the devil himself cower.
The ensemble resumed, and Octavia again played beautifully unparalleled music, so wonderful in fact that the rest of the Cello line was taking notice, and looks of jealousy overtook them. Several minutes passed, and Octavia was certain the teasing had finally stopped, and things would only go uphill from here.
Just as she was getting comfortable with this fact, she felt something jostle her bow. The cellist to her right had used her elbow to bump Octavia's hoof, causing her to lose control of the bow and mangle the chords she was playing. When the director didn't stop, Octavia quickly recovered, shooting a nasty sneer at the cellist. She was turning her head back to her music, when suddenly she felt her whole cello jump an inch over. She quickly glanced to the left to see Bass Clef attempting to kick her cello out again. Her eyebrows furrowed once more and her face filled with rage, but she managed to keep her composure, and quickly recovered and continued playing.
For the next several minutes, Bass Clef and the other cellist would take turns making little shots at Octavia and her cello, causing her to falter and quaver. It drove her to the point where she got so annoyed, that she herself began to stagger in playing the music. After nearly a whole minute of horribly butchered music, the director stopped the ensemble, and he was angrier than he ever had been before.
"Miss Octavia, I don't know why you continue to distort our composition, but clearly you are not worthy to be a member of this Orchestra! I want you to get your things and get out this instant!" Octavia stood up quickly.
"But-"
"I SAID NOW!" The Director aggressively pointed his hoof at the door. Octavia tried desperately to tell him what was going on in the cellist line, but she was too frozen with fear and embarrassment. Giving in, she dropped her head, picked up her cello and turned around to leave the hall.
"Don't let the door hit you on the way out," Bass Clef mocked, as the entire orchestra followed suite with laughter. Octavia stopped and stood still.
Her head still dropped and looking at the floor, she stood there in silence. Although her face was hidden from everyone else, her pupils shrunk, and her eyes slowly turned outwards. In her mind she had snapped. All the ridicule, the teasing, and the mocking had driven her to the brink of insanity, and this final straw was enough to push her over the edge.
Bass Clef's laughter started to cease as he noticed Octavia's grip around her cello tighten. He sat there for a second or two, staring at Octavia, who hadn't moved from her spot for almost a minute. Suddenly, before he could even register what happened, he felt a deep burning pain in the side of his face. A force struck him over and knocked him out of his chair and onto the floor; his face splintered, cut, and bleeding.
Octavia had swung her cello as fast as a baseball player swings a bat, and hit Bass Clef square on his cheek. She panted heavily as her mouth creaked into a wide smile; her pupils still small and gazing outward. The entire ensemble had jumped out of their seats in panic and were quickly scrambling to a safe distance. All of them were safe, except for the cello line. Before the cellist to her right could even stand all the way up, Octavia swung her cello again, this time straight down onto her victims back, shattering her vertebrae in multiple places.
Her assaults didn't let up, as she quickly found herself at the next cellist, who looked up her with absolute fear in his eyes. Octavia's blow was relentless. She swung her cello down full swing and cracked the pony right between the eyes, lodging a giant piece of wood into his forehead.
Her next victim was a violinist who had unfortunately tripped and was stuck in the legs of a chair. With her cello almost completely busted up, she picked up the bow for her cello, and without even hesitating, jammed it into the eye of the violinist, who shrieked in horrifying pain.
By now, the entire hall had been cleared as the musicians had frantically escaped down the hallway and out of the building. However one brave pony had stayed behind and was trying to help Bass Clef to his feet and lead him to safety. He crouched down with his back facing Octavia.
She slowly turned, taking notice of her next victim. She reached down and grabbed one of the wires off her cello and managed to snap it off without making a sound. She tightened it around her hooves, and in one quick pounce, she was on her victims back; the cello wire strangling against his neck.
He reared back, trying to get Octavia off of him, but it only served to tighten the wire around his neck. He bucked and kicked wildly, but Octavia had a firm hold on his neck. It was only a matter of seconds until he stopped bucking and collapsed to the ground; his breathing halted and eyes bulging.
Octavia hoisted herself up off the dead pony's body and quickly glanced around the room. With no victims left in sight, her insanity drive began to retreat. After a few moments in a daze, she suddenly found herself regaining full awareness, and was accompanied by a splitting headache.
"Ugh, what happened?" she said as she nursed her head with her hooves. She slowly opened her eyes, but her lids quickly flung wide open as she stared at the gruesome horror scene that was the practice hall. Before her, amongst the scattered wreckage of chairs, stands, and instruments, were two dead ponies, and two that were severely injured. Octavia froze in place for several minutes, shocked by the foul deed she had done.
"What have I done?" she quietly asked herself. "How could I have done this?" She slowly backed up against the wall, slowly sliding down the side until she was seated on the floor; her eyes still wide open. She continued to sit there, completely frozen, unable to speak and unable to move, as the sound of sirens approached.
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"Octavia... Octavia...Octavia!!!"
Octavia blinked once, and the world came rushing back to her. She looked up, and discovered the director calling her name.
"May we continue, Miss Octavia, or do you plan to continue daydreaming?"
Her face was on fire and her body was shaking. She didn't know exactly when, but at some point she had started daydreaming, letting the already bad situation influence her thoughts. After some quick recollection, she realized that none of the other musicians had hassled her, and all of it was just her mind drifting off. She gulped several times, and wiped several beads of cold sweat from her head.
"Feeling okay, Tavi? You look a little worse for wear," Bass Clef said with a cruel chuckle. "Sure would be a shame if you were to be, oh say, removed from the orchestra."
Her grip tightened around her cello, and her pupils shrank as she slowly turned her head towards her rival.
"Indeed it would."
