All You Need Is Wub

The next few days passed quickly for the cellist. Seeing as she lived at Vinyl’s place and didn’t own an apartment of her own anymore, she decided to ask her fillyhood friend Rarity for a place to stay. As expected, the Element of Generosity welcomed her into the guest bedroom at the boutique with open arms, saying she could stay there as long as she needed. The resident fashionista of Ponyville, however, was starting to get worried about her longtime friend. Octavia rarely left the room she had been given except to get meals, and even then it was only for a few minutes. What was the most troublesome, however, was the fact that the gray mare never spoke unless spoken to first, and even then it was usually just one or two word answers. On the fourth day of her stay, Rarity decided it was time to talk to the musician about the issues she was having with her recent breakup.

Octavia was sitting on her bed, staring at her deformed cello, just like she had done for the past four days. A quiet knock broke her out of her trance as Rarity’s head suddenly entered the room.

“Hello darling. How are you doing today?”

“Fine, I suppose.”

“Well, that’s…good to hear. Do you mind if I talk with you for a minute or so?”

All Octavia did was shrug as she replied “I guess not,” in a monotone voice.

The designer slowly made her way to the bed and sat down next to her friend, trying to think of the best way to start the conversation. It only took her a few seconds to decide that being blunt and to the point would be best in this situation.

“Octavia,” she cautiously started, “I’m worried about you.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

“Well, you barely talk anymore, you almost never come out of this room, and whenever I check in on you, the only thing you ever do is stare at that cello.” Rarity quickly responded, with a slight tinge of desperation in her voice. “Would you be willing to talk to me a little bit about your situation with Vinyl?” While Rarity knew the basics from when Octavia came to her, she knew there was much she was not told.

All Octavia did was sit there for a moment, before tears began forming at the corners of her eyes and she answered, “What is there to talk about? She’s a silly mare who thought that it would be ok to scratch up my cello just so she could learn to play for herself, even though I expressly told her not to touch it!” The cellist’s voice began to take on an angry tone before she finished her mini-rant. “And do you know what the worst part is, Rarity? The worst part is that she thought I would believe that she only did it to surprise me.”

Rarity’s interest was quickly caught at this statement, causing her ears to perk up as she quickly turned to her lifelong friend.

“What was that dear?” she asked. “Repeat to me exactly what she said to you.”

“All I remember her saying is that she was trying to learn the cello so she could play me my favorite songs as a surprise. I can’t believe she thought I would believe that story. I know she wouldn’t put that much work into something as complex as learning to play the cello in secret.”

When Octavia finished speaking, both mares sat in silence, one still slightly fuming and the other thinking as fast as she could. As Rarity kept thinking about what Octavia had said, her eyes widened as a horrible realization came to her mind. Turning so she faced the other mare once again, the designer slowly spoke.

“Um…Octavia darling, I don’t mean to upset you any more than you already are, but I think Miss Scratch was telling the truth. From the way you have described the situation to me, I am positive that she really was trying to learn how to play your cello, with a few…unfortunate side effects.”

After Rarity said this, Octavia stared at the damaged instrument, wondering if she had been wrong. Looking at the gouges in the wood of her cello a little more, something she had been desperately trying to avoid doing before, she noticed that the length and depth of the marks suggested someone trying to play a rather complicated piece, not someone just playing random notes, which she didn’t expect. Realization slowly dawned on her that perhaps she had slightly overreacted to the whole ordeal and was solely the one in the wrong.

As tears began to form once again, she looked at her friend and quietly said “You’re right Rarity. I’m such an idiot. I probably ruined the best relationship I’ve ever had because of a stupid piece of wood. Vinyl’s probably moved on already too. It would probably be best if I tried to stay away from her and tried to move on.”

The romantic in Rarity, while still slightly shocked at the way Octavia had just insulted her prized cello, quickly picked up on the mare’s depressed attitude and would have none of it.

“Octavia, shush. I will not have such negative talk under this roof. Yes, you did overreact and yes, it is possible Vinyl has moved on, but you will never know until you find out yourself. In fact, I know the perfect way of finding out. Vinyl Scratch is having a show tonight at Spiked Punch, Berry Punch’s bar, and I think that would be the perfect way to determine where your relationship stands. My suggestion is that you go to the show tonight, apologize to her, and see what she says.”

All Octavia had to say as she quietly sniffled away the last of her tears was, “Thank you Rarity. That is wonderful advice. Now, if you would excuse me, I need to get ready to hit the club tonight.”