The darkest streets of Manehattan are not the place where the usual ponies roam. They have the reputation of being the badlands of the city, criminals and gamblers populating the shadows and blood flowing on the bare ground just to find its way to the poorly-managed severs.
Usually the regular ponies that live by the law stay out of those streets, careful not to even look that way. That’s the best way to stay out of trouble and live your perfect life just like you did the day before.
But this night a member of the city’s elite had found her way to the dark side. She was galloping down the streets, heading towards her target which was buried deep into the maze of alleys.
Even though it was seen as extremely inappropriate behavior for such a formal and well-behaving mare, Octavia didn’t really care. The elite of the city consisted of just a bunch of up-struck snobs that were not quite fancy enough to fit in to the Canterlot elite. They lived their little lie, sipping the cheap copy of the original Canterlot whiskey and having their formal conversations about how the youth of the city was going to the wrong direction in life.
The only reason Octavia even was present in the meetings of the group was that she was the lead cellist of the symphony orchestra and ponies expected her to participate in such things. If somepony would actually have asked about her opinion, she would probably have pointed out that she would rather be cuddling with her beloved than be present in those boring gatherings.
But that was not possible. It would never be possible again.
Alley after alley passed by as the hooves of the gray mare drummed the lumpy gravel ground of the so called “main street of the dark side”, the alley that allowed access to the whole area of the slums. The place was officially known as the slums of Manehattan, but the ponies, especially the young ones, liked the names “dark side” or “badlands” more.
The alleys were silent during this time of the night. Octavia knew that. She had been raised in this environment after all. It had been her home until the leader of the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra had seen her performance at the age of twelve.
She passed by a late dealer looking for some customers, obviously hiding some of his newest batch under his way too big raincoat. Both of his forehooves were hidden deep into the pockets of the jacket. The large brown Stetson-styled hat covered his face, leaving only the frightening white grin and the slowly-burning cigarette visible.
“Would the ma’am like some herbal medicine?” the dealer asked and coughed at his own joke. Octavia could see him pulling the cigarette out of his mouth and letting out quite a cloud of smoke.
She knew that by stopping she would either end up buying the whole batch or get a knife into her throat, so she just kept on galloping, leaving the dealer alone again.
“Well, whatever you say, ma’am,” the dealer called after her, obviously a little disappointed due to him missing a fairly good chance of getting some bits, probably sheathing his illegal butterfly knife he had been holding in the hoof that had been in the pocket of the coat.
The surroundings were starting to get a little bit more familiar and Octavia knew that she was about to reach her destination. The large apartment houses were starting to turn into plain small apartments with weak walls and a little room. The lighting of the area was getting even worse and the plants were not growing anymore.
This was the center. The center of all the evil of the town. Once the place had been the heart of the lively little town, now it was the spot where drug dealers and teenage ponies with no form of intelligence were exchanging products, where hookers roamed free, looking for some easy income and where everything was legal as long as you had the cash to bribe the members of the leading drug clans.
Just a couple of hundred of meters outside the center was a big building that had been left alone by everyone and everything else but the nature itself. The cold gray walls were still up, even though they had quite an amount of flora growing on them, and not a single graffiti occupied the surface of them, not on the outside and not on the inside. The building was a taboo; it was forbidden to enter and should not be touched. If you got caught painting a graffiti on the wall of the building you would get killed for sure.
It was simply an old school building. It had been the only school in Manehattan before the city had gotten big and it had been the only school of the slums after the city had gotten big. This very school had been the school where Octavia had been as a filly.
But that’s not why it had gained its reputation. It had only a little to do with Octavia. The main reason why it was considered as the holy place of the dark side was Vinyl.
Vinyl had been quite popular among the underground of Manehattan. She had performed in the slums many times, even though her manager and sponsors had threatened to leave her, and had managed to gain the trust and honor of the criminals of the slums.
Vinyl had been in the same school as Octavia. As the school resided in the slums, it had quickly become a taboo, a holy place, the place where the living legend had grown up. Vinyl had even done some gigs at the hall of the school, making it even more famous among the ponies of the slums, creating its reputation.
And that very building was Octavia’s destination.
She took a quick look around in order to make sure that she would not be seen and headed towards the feared and honored building.
Soon she reached the main gate of the building. That gate didn’t lead to the building itself, but rather into the lobby. The gate was massive and mainly made out of rust. Once it had been a decorated masterpiece, but now the time had managed to do its work.
The gate was slightly open, as always. It had been stuck since the days when Octavia had been in school and the groundskeeper had never bothered to fix it. Octavia squeezed herself through the narrow gap and entered the dark lobby of the old school building. It was just like she remembered it to be; cold gray walls made out of stone, only a little décor and too small for all the students to fit in. The hallways that started from the lobby had been badly lit even back then and now there was no hope of the lamps still functioning. She’d have to trust her luck.
She picked the rightmost of the hallways and started walking, using her forehooves to guide the rest of her body around. It was slow and still pretty dangerous, but she had nothing better. Whilst concentrating on walking, she also let her mind wander, recalling the little happy bits of her life, trying to convince her that there was still some hope. But deep inside she knew that all hope was lost. She had lost everything.
Slowly but surely the hallway was starting to get wider and wider as she was getting closer to the final destination of hers. The amount of light increased a little as the dim moonlight was making its way through the cracks in the ceiling of the huge hall ahead of her.
As she left the hallway and entered the hall through the doorway that had no door, she could immediately feel the coldness try to take her over. The roof had cracked badly, letting in some moonlight and some of the night’s coldness. Parts of the roof were lying on the rows of seats that were set in lines so everypony could see what was happening on the stage in the southern end of the hall.
The stage was perfectly illuminated by the moonlight, causing it to look like a spotlight was showcasing the nonexistent performer. The red curtains that were supposed to be covering the stage from the gazes of the ponies when the act had not yet begun were badly ragged and had lost most of their color. The background of the stage was pure dark as the lights were not working, but that would not bother Octavia.
Without a second thought she started making her way towards the stage. She had entered the forbidden building; there was no going back now.
She jumped over the piles of rubble and carefully stepped over the sharp shards of glass that had fallen from the windows of the eastern wall of the hall.
After struggling for quite some time she managed to get to the edge of the stage. She flung her hoof up and grabbed the edge of it, getting a good hold before pulling herself up. After tidying herself up a bit and adjusting the trademark bowtie she had, she determinedly walked towards the instrument rack that was located next to the controls of the lights. The only instruments left were some old cheap violins, a rusted tuba and a cello. Her cello, to be exact.
It had been a long time. She had forgotten her very first instrument to the hall of her old school when she had been taken away from the small school and into the bigger and better musical schools of Canterlot. She had not remembered it until now, until the events had forced her to think back.
And now she reunited with it, only to part ways again very soon.
Even her very own bow was left, in the same good condition she had always kept it in. Even the almighty time itself had left it alone. This was a good thing as she knew no other place to get a replacement at this hour, or in these streets.
She picked up the bow, feeling its familiar notches and carvings in her hoof, and placed it on the floor next to her. It would have to wait for a moment.
She then proceeded on to moving the heavy cello out of its stand so it could fulfill its destiny once more.
After managing to get a good grip of the beautiful instrument, Octavia gently tried to lift it, knowing the dangers of pulling it up too fast. Whilst she might not have looked like the strongest of ponies, she still was used to carrying heavy instruments around, so the old cello rose up from its stand pretty easily.
But the fact that lifting it had been easy didn’t make it any easier to carry around. As soon as Octavia had managed to position the cello so that she could walk, she started taking it towards the edge of the stage so it would face the endless rows of seats.
The instrument made no protests and after a while it was resting against the ground in the natural spotlight caused by the beams of the moon. It would make a perfect stage for her.
Octavia returned back to the instrument rack to retrieve her bow that was still lying on the ground. She picked it up, ran a hoof over the bow hair to make sure that it was still tense. After it had passed her test, she walked back over to the dark-brown wooden cello.
As she reached it, she swiftly lifted it up and positioned it correctly. She placed the bow over the strings, took a deep breath and let the final sensible thoughts try to change her mind. When they failed to present enough proof that this was a bad idea, she closed her eyes and spoke out loud.
“You were the love of my life, but now you’re gone. The light in my life has faded out, and there is no warmth left when you are not here next to me. This is for you, Vinyl.” She let a single tear roll down to her cheek before pulling the bow back and letting the beautiful sound of the cello take over the old hall, giving it the final show it had been waiting for since the school had been shut down.
The coldness of the air, the darkness of the night, the eerie atmosphere of the hall and the loud hoofsteps coming from the hallways had no chance of breaking her concentration. This was her destiny and there was no point of changing it now. All that mattered was the sound of the cello, the sound dedicated to Vinyl.
And as the notes of the final symphony made it out of the cracks in the roof, as they reached the dark alleys and as the ponies out there heard them, she could feel Vinyl being closer than ever.
