I Always Wanted To Play The Cello (Octavia II)

Normally, when Octavia dreamt, it was of better days. She would dream of her parents, her friends and herself going to see her grandfather in the Celestial Hall. They would all sit down in the front row and wait for him to appear. The hall itself was filled with ponies and noise. Laughter and happiness knew no bounds in her dreams. Lyra made funny faces and jumped up and down on her seat and Madame Hooves told her to sit down properly with but a glance. Octavia noticed this, but her focus was somewhere else. She was on the edge of her own seat, her tiny hooves shaking with excitement. It had been so long since the fire in her dreams and since her grandfather had left this world but he had come back just to fill this hall with his magic again. Then she saw somepony stepping on the stage.

The first time they had slept the dream had changed. The pony who moved into the limelight was the most graceful mare Octavia had ever seen. Her coat was of a goldish gray, her hair dark grey with a lighter tint and her eyes were as violet as mulberries. Her face was a rock in front of the people and she looked over the many ponies with a cold expression, as if she didn't even care about them. Still her presence was undeniable the center of attention now and with every second passed the quiet settled itself in more and more. Then the other bandmembers appeared on the stage. The pianist laughed at a joke told off-stage, the brass-player tried to stop herself from giggling and the harpist seemed more nervous than anything. They all positioned themselves at their respective instruments. But what did the graceful one play?

As Octavia looked again she found the mare putting the bow to the strings of her cello and her eyes were fixated on the instrument and even though her face was cold Octavia could see the shining in her eyes. The glitter of nostalgia and happiness. She wondered who that mare was and then she blinked.

The mare took a deep breath and looked over all the ponies in the hall again. Tonight, music would fill these halls once more. She nodded to her compatriots and then she pulled the bow across the strings. As the first sound came the filly had woken up again.

Then the nightmares came, the burning hall, her parents laughing in her face while leaving the little filly in the greenish rain that hurt her eyes and every time she woke up scared and screaming. Once she even dreamt of Rainbow Dash and how she had left her in their hideout. She had told Rainbow Dash that she was safe, that somepony would come to safe her. She would keep her promise and come back and then she would always run to the castle. However, in the dream there was always a gunshot in the distance and within the realm of fantasies Rainbow Dash had died. She surely did make it, they only came to use their guns against ponies who were able to see and the pegasus was blind.

As they all lay on the bed of flowers Octavia dreamt a different dream, however.

This time they both sat in the ruins, on the stage where the curtains had long since turned to ashes. She felt so small beside the graceful mare. A tea-set stood between them and with one elegant movement the mare lifted one cup up to drink from it.

"I always wanted to play the cello when I was younger," she said that with a voice full of longing and melancholy. "When my grandfather died they forgot about him, too, you know? They all left him while his body was still warm and the instrument was left in the corner to gather dust. I looked at it every day until I picked it up and began to pluck its strings."

Her gaze went over to the little filly, the one who had started grinning. "I did that, too. Sad thing is, they kicked me out of my house for it," said Octavia, lowering her ears. "Did you find it, the magic in the notes?"

The two Octavias looked at each other and the older one started to laugh out loud, a different laugh, not at all elegant and classy but instead more like a childish, snorting one. They were of the same age a moment later and one simply pointed at her cutie mark.

Octavia looked at it.

"There is a magic in music," the other muttered. . .

And then she woke, amidst blue flowers that only scholars would be able to identify. The crystals above them gleamed with a pale light, like stars, and she felt the warmth of her friends all around her. There was no song here but the tranquil breathing and occasional snore. Octavia felt a certain tranquility but she had slept so well that she couldn't even close her eyes now. The whole world around her just seemed perfect at that point. She looked at the crystals above her and wondered if all this had really been designed by the alicorns, the old statue was the most certain prove but one could only make out that it had once been an equine. There was no more information to be found there.

Octavia stood up, looking over her friends, all of them still asleep. She smiled slightly as she started tiptoeing towards the lake. The little filly looked at the water, which was so clear that she could make out her reflection in the water. A grey filly with black mane and brown eyes, the smallest of the group and also the eldest. She looked at her reflection and then closed her eyes, as she opened them the mare looked back at her, but only for the blink of an eye.

She stared at her own reflection for a few more moments and thought back to Rainbow Dash, the filly whom she had left behind. She had lied to her, told her that everything would be fine, just to give her the kindness of hope.

She smiled. Even if Canterlot was gone, maybe Rainbow Dash had fallen asleep still clinging to the faint hope of that stupid other filly coming back. Maybe, because of that hope, she died with newfound strength. Who knew?

As she turned around the others were stirring. Twilight, though she had eaten quite a bit herself, still relied on her friends to help her up. Her sickness wouldn't be cured by food, sadly enough. Derpy seemed to be back to the unconditional smiling and Raindrops just took a moment to breathe before she, too, rose up. The last to get up however was Lyra. On her first try she screamed out in pain and Octavia immediately hurried towards her.

The green fur she had was falling off where the black spot was and the veins on her lower leg were going black, too.

"Lyra," Octavia started, but didn't continue. She just looked at Lyra who gave her a smile so wide it looked like it hurt her more than the leg.

"It's fine. Just blacked out for a second," the unicorn said with a small giggle.

Octavia took a moment, before her face and hoof met. Why now with the puns?

She couldn't help but smile, though. Lyra was still there and still as weird as ever, and nothing would hopefully ever change that. So Octavia stretched out her hoof towards her friend. "Come on, maybe some water will help."

Lyra looked at it, away and back at it again before she grabbed it and let herself be led towards the lake.

Crack

The water felt cool against her coat, but she didn't really care. Instead she took Lyra's hoof and stroke slowly over the black spot on her leg. The wetness did little for the thing itself but the face of the unicorn softened during the washing, so maybe it did help, after all. Octavia looked to Twilight for help at one point but all the other filly could do was look worriedly. Octavia didn't blame her for it. There was no way for any of them to know what exactly that black spot was or how to treat it. Water would do for now.

Crack

"Did you ponies hear that?" Derpy suddenly asked and they all peaked their ears. Nothing, absolutely nothing. Lyra shrugged and tried to stand on all four again, after a few seconds she brightened up.

"The water worked! I don't know how but it did it, the pain's gone. Whoopie!" Lyra laughed and jumped and hopped out of the water towards her friends. Octavia just smiled, since she still felt a bit tired after all. Despite that however, she decided to move back to where her friends sat. Next they needed to discuss where to go from here.

Crack

The sound echoed through the cave and all the ponies immediately guarded their ears. The sound of bones breaking and the sound of sawblades cutting through steel, creating a cacaphony of despair and fear. They all looked the way they had come, from where the sounds came and they heard that the beasts walked towars them. They heard and then they saw as the things emerged from the dark.

They wore their coats like the night sky, walked on two cloved feet, while their hands had sawlike fingers and their heads were horse skulls with one eye gleaming red while from the other a black liquid oozed. Their upper bodies were made of bones with loose flesh hanging from it and a blackness came with them into the cave, a blackness with claws and teeth and everything terrible in the world.

I always wanted to play the cello, Octavia thought, because that was the only way to keep my grandfather alive in this unfogiving world.

She was scared to death.

"Never forget who you are," he had told her a long time ago.

The creatures moved forward and they all hid behind her.

"There is a magic in music," the other one had said and Rainbow Dash was still waiting beneath the rubble of a dead city. . .

Wait.

That was the moment Octavia's eyes opened for the first time and the nightmarish creatures stopped in their tracks. That was the moment she realized what exactly she had told Rainbow Dash. She had told her what she had wanted to believe, no what she truly believed. Something simple, something innocent. She believed that because the filly with the many colored mane was her friend still, and she had made a promise which she intended to keep.

That was the moment the voice started to echo through her head.

That's it! Now you can do it.

The others looked at her in wonder at that moment.

"Octavia. . . You. . . You got a mark on your flank," was all Twilight could say and Octavia turned around at that very moment.

"Trust me and follow my lead, okay?" She asked, having found it, the flicker, the fire. She had something to fight for and by the Alicorns, she would fight.

The creatures screamed and leaped forwards and the darkness swirled all around them, intending to swallow them whole. Octavia didn't wait; that time was over. She wasn't scared anymore, she wasn't going to hide away anymore. She knew they were safe because they were on the right path and this was the moment she would take a dive.

Immediately she turned towards the lake and galloped, her friends didn't wait and did the same. As Octavia jumped, they jumped, too. The last glimpse she took was at her own reflection. At the dark grey mane with lighter tints in it and the mulberry eyes. There was still magic in this world. In music, in poetry and song. But magic was something else entirely. Magic was trust and hope and honesty.

The water swallowed them but the darkness never stopped clawing as the Night Terror tried to tear its worst enemy apart. The water went into a swirl but Octavia swam, down and deeper down. Only once she looked behind her and the others were following. Twilight clinging to Derpy who sank like a rock, Lyra actually swimming and Raindrops having a look of determination in her eyes.

None of them were scared. Trixie had sacrificed herself, Rainbow Dash was still waiting and the Lunarium was getting closer. They could do this. Yet the darkness started to surround them more and more and the strength was slowly leaving her arms. The current was slowly pushing them up again and suddenly it was gone. The strength, the force, everything as darkness overtook them and Magia's distant laughter became the last thing they would hear.

Her parents had looked at her in disdain back then. . .

And then Octavia cried something out, into the water, something nopony could hear but herself and suddenly there was a light and the rock beneath them was cracking. One moment later they were falling. They, the water and the stones. They were falling out of the darkness and into a different plain entirely. Beneath them was no ground but what looked like the nightsky. A sea of billion stars, going on eternally.

Everypony was screaming, everypony but Octavia who simply went in head first.

"Trust me!" She yelled, "We'll make this!"

The wind was moving against her and she didn't know whether or not everypony had heard her. She hoped they had. She really hoped. Then she felt somepony tipping on her shoulder and looked to her side where Derpy was reaching for her hoof. She took it. The grey pegasus held her and Twilight, while Raindrops held Lyra in both her frontlegs.

"Into there?" Derpy asked loudly.

"Yes! We need to go deeper!" Twilight yelled back and for the first time Octavia felt what a nose-dive was. She felt the wind blowing her hair back as she held as strong as possible unto Derpy and the sea of stars was getting closer still. She didn't even look back at what Magia and its beasts were doing.

She knew that they were only a few steps away now. As the stars grew bigger she couldn't help but laugh.

Just you wait, RD. I'll fix this world and there will be songs all around us and our dreams will be fulfilled. I swear it. The thoughts ran through her head as they went down into another lake. This time, as they blacked out they were surrounded by the light of the stars and the feeling that somepony was watching over their sleep.