The sun shone brightly as the warmth it provided beamed down upon the faces of the ponies of Ponyville, a gentle, welcoming tug in the direction of wakefulness for all who felt it.
All...except one. As the rays of the sun fell upon the face of one pony in particular, they turned their bodies in the opposite direction, shying away from its touch.
But even as they shunned the life giving rays, ever so lovingly given to them by the one who they called princess, it persisted, pressing its heat against their back and silently pleading with them to awaken and greet the day it had so painstakingly prepared for them.
"Ugh! Fine, i'll get up already! Stupid sun bothering me in the morning." They said as they turned back around, groaning as they sat up, hearing the popping of joints as they rose and began to rouse themselves from sleep, stretching and letting out a loud yawn.
They crawled out of bed, reluctantly dragging their body away from the lure of the comforting sheets. Finally, they stood up straight on their hooves, giving a longing glance back toward the bed they had just left, as if contemplating whether or not to just give into the temptation and jump right back in, and skip the day.
The sun's rays lit up more of their room, lighting the way to their bedroom door as if to say, "No more sleep. Go outside."
They let out a sigh and rubbed the leftover sleep from their eyes, only to grumble when they were done. "Ugh, fine! Whatever. I'll go, okay?! Just stop bothering me!"
they made their way over to their closet and pulled it open to reveal several items of clothing, some refined and ladylike, others wild and expressive.
All were strung together into proper outfits and hung neatly on hangers inside the closet.
At the very back of the small space, propped against the wall, and revealed by the sun's rays, once again invading her privacy with its probing yellow eye, was a body length mirror, revealing her entire form, encased in a complete set of graphic pajamas with little cellos on them.
The only skin visible on them was that of their face and their hands, shown to be gray.
Expertly curled black hair framed their face and eyes. Eyes which boasted a striking amount of purple in them.
This pony...was Octavia.
She grabbed an outfit and after a quick scanning of the rest of her clothes, pulled it out, away from the rest.
As she closed her closet, she spotted out of the corner of her eye a hint of yellow.
Turning her head to find the source of this sudden flash of color, she spied a fairly sizable stack of bits on the dresser near her closet.
She smirked slightly.
"Well, at least she knows how to bring in the bits, doesn't she?"
Her smirk turned into a genuine smile as she stared at the irrefutable proof of the reason why she had been so rude when she had awoken, as well as the reason for her having a clammy, cold, sweat laced body so early in the morning.
She slipped on her outfit and checked the clock on her wall.
"Oh buck, I overslept! I'm gonna be late!"
She quickly covered her mouth at her foul language and glared at nothing in particular.
'I guess its another one of her influences.' she thought with a slight flash of anger.
She finally made her way out of her room and down the steps toward the kitchen table. She needed to eat quickly, lest she miss her shot.
She quickly decided on an apple and a simple oat bar and bit into the former with a satisfying and juicy crunch that almost made her want to finish the whole thing here.
She beat down that impulse with thoughts of her upcoming event and left the house, scanning the many buildings throughout Ponyville in search of her target.
At last, after ten minutes, during which her worry for her chances of making it to her recital on time had skyrocketed immensely, she spotted it just over the horizon, right below the mountain where Canterlot Castle stood. The Ponyville amphitheater
She made a beeline for it, checking her watch the whole time, counting down the minutes until she would be officially late to her own recital.
Soon, she made it, but with only a few minutes to go before she went on, and with her as out of breath as she was, she didn't think she'd be ready to go in that time frame.
She quickly checked her cello for any out of tune strings, scratches, gashes, and the like, that it may have obtained in her rush to arrive.
To her great relief, it hadn't. This also meant she didn't have to make any last minute adjustments to her beloved instrument, which would thus complicate her situation further.
Soon, she heard the announcer pony, priming the crowd for her entrance. She quickly did whatever she could to calm her racing heart. Water, another bite of the apple, breathing exercises.
Soon, she was back to normal, and she was ready to begin. As the crowd's thunderous applause began, she made her way onto the stage, using the brief intermission to make sure she was indeed fully ready for this.
'Stop it, Octavia. You've practiced like mad for this recital. There's no way you're not ready for this.' she said to herself as she began to take up her cello, the roar of the crowd growing quieter and quieter as she did so.
Soon, when the crowd had gone completely silent, she began to play, and her doubts faded away, lost in the sound of the melody. She couldn't believe she had been so nervous only seconds before.
Her music was amplified considerably given the building's acoustics-friendly structure. Soon, it filled the room, serenading the ears of all the ponies present, including her.
She was lost in the lure of the beautiful sounds her cello made. with She could hear every note she coaxed from its strings, see the sheet music in her mind's eye as she shut out the rest of the world around her, stuck in the trance caused by her own instrument.
At the end of her performance, she opened her eyes, looking around in slight confusion as she remembered what had happened.
This would happen alot. She would get so caught up in her music, that she wouldn't even notice others until the piece was over. And now she was there to witness the countless tear filled eyes, all trained upon her as they stood and clapped, impressed.
She herself began to cry now, tears falling from her own eyes as she drank in the praise she was receiving. She didn't want to say it aloud, lest she sound arrogant, but she always considered this the best part of a recital. The praise, the ponies cheering for her, the fact that she made them happy with her music. It was all so wonderful.
Later that day, she lay down upon her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her recital had gone swimmingly, and while it is true that she technically had nothing else to do today, she did have something to do tonight.
For she was also Vinyl Scratch, the silent goddess of Ponyville's nightlife, watching over her fans and gifting them with wonderful music.
'Well, wonderful to her, anyway' she thought, only to let out a soft chuckle as she thought about her. The []other mare inside her head.
'I was a different mare back then. I can still remember the day we first met.'
"Hey there, Tavi! How's your day been? Got any more music for us today?"
Octavia grunted as she was pushed into a wall by a much taller mare, who hovered over her, a wide grin spreading on her muzzle.
She was about to stagger to her feet, when she had the wind knocked out of her by a hoof to her chest.
"Hey, she asked you a question! Answer her, you blank flank!"
Suddenly the leader spoke up again, this time in a sarcastically kind voice. "Oh no. What have you done! This poor pony! She's hurt! And all you had to do was ask nicely."
She bent down in front of Octavia and said, "May we please see your music?"
Octavia looked up at her, tears forming in her eyes, even as some were already falling down her soaked cheeks.
She was about to speak, when she was suddenly lifted up into the air and pushed hard into the wall, her back arched in pain as she screamed aloud.
"I said, 'May we please...' she punched her in the face. 'See...' Again. 'Your...' And again. 'Music'!" she was hit again before being thrown back onto the ground, where she collapsed to the ground, her hair disheveled and messy from the ordeal.
The lead mare ripped her composition from her hands and read it.
"This is complete garbage! I bet you can't even tell what this says yourself, you loser!"
She threw the papers at her, scattering them all over the floor around her.
With a final kick in the chest from the third mare, she was left there to sit
The lead mare scoffed at her. "Hmph! You're pitiful! Let's go girls." With that, the three of them made their way away from her, leaving her on the ground.
The lead mare waved behind her without looking back. "Bye, loser! Look for a real job!"
Octavia looked back at them with half-lidded eyes, and just managed to barely wheeze out, "B-...but my father...was a mu...si...cia-"
She passed out.
She awoke some time later, but when she didn't see the wall of the hallway or the ceiling of the school clinic, she knew something was wrong.
She got up to her hooves and began walking.
As she looked around, she noticed that she couldn't see anything at all. Pure darkness reigned over her vision.
She put her hands out in front of her, to try and feel her way around, but there was nothing. Nothing at all for her to hold on to.
It was as if this all consuming darkness had indeed swallowed up everything around her.
Her heart rate quickened as she began walking faster, panic entering her mind.
Soon she was jogging, then running, then rushing her way through the vast darkness.
She only managed to come to a stop when she slammed into something hard, stopping her mad dash and knocking her onto her bum.
Something told her she didn't want to open her eyes and see what it was she hit, but the curiosity was too much, and she peeked through a single eye.
A pair of bright red eyes stared back at her in the darkness, a mouth visible just below it, curved into a wide grin.
"Who...Who are you?" Octavia chanced a question.
Surprisingly, she got an answer. She could hear hoofsteps coming toward her as, slowly but surely, the terrifying visage in front of her revealed itself to be a pony. A female one. She had wild electric blue hair and white skin. Her glowing crimson eyes now appeared to be a simple red color, and they burned with a different kind of intensity than before.
A pair of sunglasses adorned her head, along with a horn, protruding proudly from her forehead.
A set of headphones around her neck lead to the rest of her clothing. A two tone blue jacket over a mid cut white t-shirt with matching pants.
She lifted up her hand in a peace sign.
"Yo. I'm Break Beat."
Octavia said nothing, too shocked to respond. When she finally managed to come up with a suitable reply she straightened herself out, stood up straight on her hooves and said, "And i'm Octavia. Nice to meet you. By the way, might you tell me where we are?"
"You mean you don't recognize your own mind?"
Octavia's eyes widened at that. "We're...in my head?" Then she suddenly felt very sad. "So...I did pass out after all..."
Break Beat frowned and took a step forward. "You know, if you want, you can teach those fillies a lesson, and beat them up."
"B-B-beat them up?! B-But...they're my classmates! I could never hurt another pony!"
"Not even when they hurt you?"
At this, Octavia fell silent.
"If you want them to stop pushing you around, then you have to fight back. Show them not to mess with you anymore. And i'll help you."
Octavia looked up at her and said, "You'll...help me? Really?"
"Of course I will. Just give me control for a while. I'll show those fillies who's boss and you'll be free to do what you want with your life."
Octavia thought about it for a moment. This all felt like a bit too much to handle, but if Break Beat could help her fix her problem, then why shouldn't she give it a shot? "Okay then. I'll leave it to you."
"Rockin'! Let's go!"
Outside of this little event, back in school, the three fillies were enjoying their lunch, talking among themselves as they munched on their food. None of them saw the flash of light that occurred in the hallway. Nor did they expect to see a white unicorn stomp over to their table.
Their meal interrupted, the lead mare looked over at her. "Who. The buck. Are you?"
The second mare spoke up as well. "What do you want with us?"
The third mare piped up to finish. "We've like, never seen you before."
The white unicorn smirked. Oh this was going to be so sweet. "I'm new. The name's Break Beat. And let's just say...I came for a friend."
With that she put on her sunglasses, put on her earphones, jumped across the table and pounced onto the lead mare, righting herself and lining up a punch to her face.
Using her horn, she picked up the other two and tossed them away, into a nearby wall, knocking them out. She then began pummeling the lead mare with her fist, giving her a black eye, a bloody nose and several broken teeth to go with those injuries.
She stood up and, using her horn again, blasted the lead mare in the direction she had thrown her two cohorts with a powerful sound wave that left her holding her riniging ears the whole way there.
She then created another sound wave. This one used as a lasso to tie them up.
With a serious expression and a smoking horn, she made her way over to them. Once there, she lifted her sunglasses off of her face, revealing to hem her blood red eyes, and said,
"Remember this the next time you feel like picking on someone, you bastards."
With that, she left, leaving them to their fate in the school clinic.
Octavia smiled as she reminisced. "Such wonderful memories we shared."
