“Finally...” a unicorn sighed, leaving a railway carriage.
It was already past midnight; the train had finally reached its destination a few minutes ago and now its rare passengers have been leaving the carriages. Some of them were shocked by a beauty of the station - Canterlot’s railway station is one of the most beautiful stations in Equestria. And even if you have already seen this station before, it still would be able to surprise you.
“Okay,” the white colored pony stretched and picked up her luggage “If I remember right, there should be a cafe nearby...”
After saying that with a decisive look on her face, the unicorn began walking toward the exit. While doing so, she had been looking around as if she had been there for the first time.
Canterlot had been her home town, but as soon as she was fourteen years old, she moved to Manehattan. Of course living alone wasn’t easy for her, but by that time she had already graduated from the musical academy, so the pony gained fame quite fast, thanks to her skills. She wasn’t just making music; she was literally talking with it. Every composition she had made could say more than the longest sentence in the world, despite her music being electronic tracks. Everyone in Manehattan would’ve recognized her, asking for her an autograph or wanting to take a photo with her. She had been traveling around the world, performing in different cities. This unicorn is been famous.
But even a person’s favorite thing to do will become boring eventually. And that is what happened to the pony: music became boring to her. It was like someone flipped a switch and turned her enthusiasm off - she just had no will to create. So she decided to take a break and traveled to her home town.
“And here I am,” the pony murmured to herself “Standing in front of a closed cafe. I’m hungry, damn it!”
It was two after midnight after all, so it wasn’t surprising for the cafe to be closed. The unicorn stomped in frustration and turned around.
The sleeping city sure was quiet. Sure, there were some ponies walking around, but considering how crowded the streets were during the daytime, it was nothing. Lanterns were illuminating streets, not allowing the darkness to swallow them up and giving a pony the chance to actually see something in the dark. From where she was standing, a long line of lanterns stretched to the very end of the street, twisting to the left and vanishing behind a house.
The pony remembered her first time outside. Even the garden that was infront of her house looked so big, and the city itself was just gigantic to her. Of course it already had been gigantic compared to other cities, but from the filly’s point of view it would have been immense. And all those friendly ponies around made her love being outside. Sometimes she would leave her home at the dawn and wouldn’t be back until dusk. Her mother had always been scolding her for that but, it had never kept her from leaving.
“And what am I going to do now?”
The wind was ruffling unicorn’s mane, making her light up her horn and fixing the hairstyle. And since it was autumn, the wind was cold enough to make the pony shiver.
“It’s cold here...” she thought “Good thing I brought a scarf.”
With that musician took a scarf out of her luggage. It was soft and warm and, fortunately, long enough to cover her mouth and neck at the same time.
“Ah, that’s better.” the satisfied mare said “But I still don’t know what to do. Mom and Dad are in Los Pegasus right now and I have no keys from our house. What was I thinking?”
The unicorn remembered that a few days ago, she had received a letter from her parents. In it they were saying that they were leaving for a vacation in Los Pegasus and that if she was going to visit them in Canterlot, it had to wait. The pony had been too busy to think about it at the moment and she had forgotten about it the very next day.
“Okay, what was written there?” the musician had been trying to remember, at least roughly, what was written in the letter at the very end “Was it ‘In case you want to visit Canterlot anyway, the key is under the flowerpot’?” She sighed in frustration.
“Well, I guess you just have to check it, girl. It’s not like you have something else to do...” her inner voice said “In case you can’t find the key, you should be able to find a place in a hotel.”
The unicorn agreeably nodded to this voice. It actually had been her intention to go straight to a hotel when she had been leaving Manehattan, but somewhere in the middle of the trip she gad thought that her parents would be quite offended by that.
Sighing again, the pony slowly began to walk toward her home.
A cold wind made her walk faster and a few seconds later, she didn’t even realize that she had been galloping instead of just walking. And thanks to that, the entire road to the house had only taken her ten minutes.
The unicorn caught her breath and looked at the building in front of her. It was the same old house she had been seeing since she was a little filly. Even though she hadn’t seen it for ages, it didn’t become distant. Instead it became even closer. After all, absence makes the heart fonder. Now the pony could confidently say that this is where she had wanted to be the whole time. To touch these familiar walls, to look through these big windows she hadn’t seen for so long.
“Okay,” the mare said “Let’s check if the key is there...”
She then proceeded to slowly walk to the pot . Shelit up her horn and without a sound the flowerpot lifted up in the air, letting the pony to notice a shiny, little, piece of metal under it.
“Bingo!” she said and grabbed the key.
The pot she left levitating fell, despite it’s best efforts to levitate.. The piece of fired clay tried to argue with gravity, but soon gave in and fell down. Unhappy with the blatent disrespect of physics, the concrete floor decided to punish the offender, and smash it to pieces.
“Whoops...” the unicorn only said “I hope mom won’t be mad at me for this...”
After quickly wiping pieces of clay and dirt to the side, she put the key in the keyhole. And one click later she was inside.
“Now that this problem is solved, I’m sure that there has to be some food in here somwhere” the pony thought with hope “there just has to be.” The musician hated sleeping on an empty stomach.
To her luck, she had found a jar of cookies that had been left in a cupboard.
“I wonder if they changed anything in my room.”
The pony got upstairs while holding the can and munching a cookie. There were four doors, one leading to her parents’ room, another one to the storage room, and the third one to her room. The fourth one had never been used and, if the unicorn remembered right, wasn’t even unlocked.
The door met her with the familiar picture of herself. The musician smiled, remembering how she drew this in her fillyhood. “Do not enter without permission” said the words under the picture.
“Well,” the unicorn put her hoof on the doorknob “I’m home.”
And with that, she opened the door. Without a creak it opened and only then the owner of the room recalled something important.
“Wait a minute. Didn’t I put a trap here before leaving?” she thought.
*Poof*
With a loud noise the mechanism that had been set into a motion by the opened door sent a big pillow flying into the side of the pony.
“Guh!”
The pillow had enough momentum to knock its owner down. So now the musician was lying on the floor, the cookie being knocked out of her grip. She picked up the cookie, and finished eating it. She set down the jar on her nightstand.
***
She opened her eyes when restless sun rays knocked in her window and then, without permission, flew inside the room. Confused at first, they however quickly regained their determination and fell on the unicorn’s eyes.
“Mmm...” she moaned and got up.
It was a noon already, and streets have already been crowded by ponies. This was the musician’s favorite time of the day, so she hurried into the bathroom.
“Girl, you look horrible!” cried her inner voice after she had looked in a mirror “Fix your mane at least!”
She quickly grabbed a hairbrush.
“Maybe I should make a ponytail?” she had been thinking while brushing her mane “Nah that would make me look even worse.”
An image flashed before the pony’s eyes: her mother holding a hairbrush and slowly sliding it down her mane. She had been saying something, but the unicorn couldn’t remember what exactly. It was something funny, something that made her smile. Something about ponytails. Possibly a pun about ponies with tails?
“Alright, now that we finished this, let’s get on to some important things.” she said to herself.
Those important things were, of course, shopping and cooking. While the pony didn’t like to cook herself, she had been taught by her mother to cook, so it wasn’t a problem as one may have thought.
“Pickles, tomatoes, potatoes, some salad, apples...” the musician made her shopping list, “a little of this, and this... And of course, cookies!”
With that, she took a bag and went out the front door.
Unlike at nighttime, it was quite warm so the unicorn pulled down the scarf that had already been put on her face. Her sunglasses were sparkling in the sun rays, glowing with a warm purple light. This is what made a pony neighboring her notice her.
“Vinyl?” said the surprised pony “Is that you, Vinyl?”
“Huh? Evening? Evening Star?”
“It’s really you! Oh my gosh, I haven’t seen you in ages!”
The white pegasus with a dark blue mane ran to Vinyl and hugged her.
“So, how’ve you been?” Evening asked “I’ve heard you’ve become quite the famous musician. What do you play?
“A DJ, to be exact. I mix and play dubtrot. I do make my own compositions, though.” the musician explained “And you, Evening? What’ve you been up to?”
The mare indefinitely waved her hoof.
“Nothing in particular. I’ve tried a lot of jobs but none of them were a good fit for me. So, for now, I’m trying to be a mail pegasus.”
“Mail pegasus? Why mail pegasus?” the unicorn lifted her one of her eyebrows.
“I havn’t really been thinking about what job to take at the time, I just took whatever job I could take. This is just a job to pay the bills while I look for something I love doing, like you. ”
Evening was jealous. Not just because Vinyl was popular and famous, no. She was jealous because Vinyl had found something she liked to do. The pegasus, even despite her cutie mark in form of a cake, didn’t like making sweets. If there was anything related to cakes she was good at, it was eating them. ‘Your cutie mark is not your destiny,’ she liked to say ‘It is just something you’re good at’. But in her case, it wasn’t even something she was good at, so the mare continued to look for a job that she would actually like.
But even if Evening was jealous, she would never say that to someone. For her jealousy had been something bad, something that shouldn’t exist. And she had been hating herself for feeling jealous. It wasn’t like her to be jealous of somepony.
“So,” the pegasus said “What are you doing here?”
“I decided to take a break,” Vinyl answered “You know, to relax, to meet old friends.”
“I see. You wanna take a walk?”
“I was actually going to do some shopping.”
“Not a problem!” Evening Star smiled “I’ll come with ya. I need to do shopping too, anyway.”
“Sure. I have so many questions to ask about whats been happening since I’ve left.”
“And I have so many answers.”
Smiling, the ponies headed to the market. Sometimes, a familiar pony would walk up to Vinyl, asking about how she had been, but since both of them were in a hurry, the conversations didn’t last for long. And once the pony had left, the two mares returned to their conversation. The old friends were talking about everything. About events in the cities, about their lives, about their plans for a future. As it turned out, the market had moved to another place, so if it wasn’t for Evening, Vinyl would be lost.
When the ponies finally made it to the market, the musician felt herself slip into a familiar atmosphere. Of being in a crowd of ponies.Of course the market was very different from the scene, but the unicorn still was happy to be among the crowd.
“Okay,” she said after shaking her head and lowering her eyes to the shopping list “First up are pickles.”
“Oh, they’re over here!” Evening pointed to the pavilion with differrent types of vegetables.
“Aaaaaaand, I think I might need a hat...” Vinyl Scratch added after a while. While she did intent to talk to some familiar ponies, talking with a whole crowd at once wasn’t something she liked to do.
“They’re right here!” Evening said, pointing to another pavilion with straw hats.
“Yeah, this will do.” She picked up a hat, and slipped it on over her mane, concealing her face, and handed the stall owner some bits. She took her shades off, and slipped them in the bag.
To the pavilion with vegetables the musician walked with a new straw hat on her head, and her sunglasses hidden inside the bag. you could say that this is a silly thing to do, since everyone can recognize you by your cutie mark but, surprisingly, it worked. No one disturbed the mares while they were doing thier shopping. They continued around the market,picking up what they needed, paying in bits, and talking to the occasional old friend.
“And now all I need are cookies,” Vinyl finally said, while striking out the next to last line “Preferably the strawberry ones.”
“Strawberry?”
“Yeah, I like strawberries!”
“Yuck!” Evening Star grimaced “I like raspberries better. A strawberry is too sour for me.”
“Sour? You obviously haven’t eaten a good strawberry! It isn’t sour at all! A raspberry on the other hand is too sweet.”
“Sweet?!” Evening cried “You can’t have too much sweet! Even the scent of a raspberry should make your mouth water!”
Vinyl Scratch shivered. Sweet things weren’t her favourite foods. Meanwhile her friend continued telling about advantages of raspberries.
“I think it’s you who haven’t eaten a good raspberry. You will never go back to strawberries once you taste a good, ripe, raspberry!”
“Oh yeah? Let’s try! You eat a good strawberry and I’ll eat a raspberry!”
“A good raspberry?”
“A good raspberry.”
“Deal!” They shaked on it.
With that mares came to the fruit shop. There they bought little containers of raspberries and strawberries, but they couldn’t even imagine what will happen next. they opened the containers, and picked one out for each other.
“Count of three” Vinyl said. “One...”
“Two...” Evening upped the count.
“Three...” Vinyl finished. They threw back their respective fruits, chewed, and swallowed.
“Yummy!” they both cried.
The mare who had never liked sour fruits enjoyed strawberries. And the mare who had never liked too sweet of fruits enjoyed raspberries. It was something none of them had been waiting for or expecting.
“You know...” the unicorn said while chewing “Not bad. Maybe I really have been eating bad raspberries.”
“Yeah...” the pegasus says, also while chewing “I think I kind of like strawberries now.”
For a while they stay silent and enjoy the berries. But suddenly Vinyl heard the quiet, mornful, sound of cello. From what she could hear, it was coming from a high building, not far away from the market.
“Where is that coming from?” the unicorn asked.
“Hm? Oh, the cello? It must be coming from a philharmonic building. It was built two years ago. Their orchestra is very famous, I’m surprised you haven’t heard of them, even though they’re so different from you. Why do you ask?” Evening gives her friend a questioning look.
“Nah, never mind.” the musician shook her head “Well, I think I got everything I need. Time to go home!”
“Yay! All I need right now is to lie down on my sofa!” The two mares walked out of the market.
“I wonder if she remembers me?” the DJ had been thinking while walking home “Probably not. I wonder if she is the one playing on the cello right now. Maybe, should I check it out next time?”
She remembered how she and the mare she had been thinking about were playing in their fillyhood. They were so-called best friends, but after she left Canterlot, they didn’t even send letters to each other. So as Vinyl was thinking, it was safe to think that her friend had forgotten about her.
But the unicorn had not forgotten, even if the earth pony had.
“Come on, Vinyl, don’t be so slow!”
“Tavi, wait!”
The gray filly ran to the carousel and hopped on it.
“You lose! You’re spinning this thing!”
“It’s not fair!” the little filly cried “Oh, duh, wait a minute. I’m a unicorn!”
With that she sat next to her friend. After that the pony lit up her horn and began to spin the carousel. It continued gaining a speed and soon fillies were happily screaming, nearly slipping out of the roundabout. Soon they did, and two friends flew away and to a soft grass. They lay on the grass next to each other, laughing.
“That was cool!” little Vinyl said.
“Totally!” said Octavia.
For some time they went silent and were staring at the sky. Big white clouds had been floating by, taking fancy forms as if trying to play charades with fillies.
“Hey, Vinyl” Octavia finally said.
“Yeah?”
“We’ll always be friends, right?”
“Of course! We’ll be friends forever!”
“Yeah. Forever.”
“Hey, Vinyl, are you okay?” Evening asked noticing that the unicorn has lost in thoughts.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I was just thinking about something.”
“Well, we’re already at your place. So... bye! See ya ‘round!”
“Yeah, see you later, Evening.”
After that Evening Star ran to her door. Waving her hoof to the musician, she hid inside the house.
“Octavia...” Vinyl murmured before walking to her own house.
Once there, she unpacked her bag and began cooking. she washed the vegetables and stacked them on the table, while the water in the pot heated up to a boil.
*Tap*
*Tap*
*Tap*
The knife tapped on the cutting board as Vinyl cut the vegetables to pieces. A memory slips over her, obscuring reality.
“Hey, where did you learn to cook so well?”
“My mother taught me. She thinks that a mare has to be able to cook. Unfortunately, so does my dad”
“Whoa, really?”
“Yeah. It’s such a pain .”
“Huh? Why? I’d like to learn to cook.”
“Well...” Vinyl put her hoof to the chin “Hm... okay. Let’s start from the easiest part - making a soup.”
Octavia was stunned.
“Wait, what? I didn’t...”
“Come on, Tavi,” the unicorn cunningly said “It’ll be easy.”
“Okay, whatever you say.”
Vinyl stopped making the salad. This memory convinced her not to wait until next time she will hear a cello. A few moments later she turned the cooker off and ran outside and toward the philharmonic building. The salad sat all alone, forgotten on the counter.
***
The inside of the philharmonic building was huge, while the building itself was gigantic. But even though it was huge, right now there was no one inside except for one gray coated pony. She had been playing on the cello, waving her bow to the left and to the right, forcing the cello to make astonishing sounds. Her eyes were closed and her head was swinging in time to the melody.
Somewhere in the auditorium a unicorn was sitting. She had been listening this wonderful music and had been thinking that this is much more beautiful than what she had been making. Of course they were creating in different genres but there was something different in Octavia’s composition. Something more, something that transended mere vibrations in the air, striking on a ponies ear drums, sending a signal to the brain that then interperates it as a sound.
“We put different messages in our music.” Vinyl thought.
A third memory fills her.
“So, what do you want to do in future?”
“I want to make music!”
“Really? Me too! But which instrument do you want to play?”
“Instrument? I want to make electronic music, so, a synthesizer, I think.”
“Oh...” Octavia lost in her thoughts.
“And you?”
“Cello. I like its sound.”
“I’m sure you’ll be an amazing cellist, Tavi! I’d love to hear it someday.”
“Of course you’ll hear it! And I hope I’ll hear your music too. I’d like to hear what message you’ll put into your compositions.”
“Message?”
“Yeah. You know, like something you want to say to your listeners through the music.”
“Oh. And what do you want to say?”
“I don’t know yet. Something about friendship maybe?”
Octavia stopped. But it sounded like the melody was still playing by itself. Soon it quieted out and the room drowned in silence.
“Now or never.” the unicorn decided “I have to know if she still remembers me.”
“That was amazing” Vinyl said.
The gray pony harshly turned her head to the owner of the voice.
“Thanks, but do I know you?” she asked sharply.
“Maybe. You remember Vinyl Scratch?”
“Sorry, I don’t think so. But I think I recognized you now. You’re DJ-Pon3, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, it is me.” the unicorn was disappointed “Well then, I think I’ll just go.”
“Wait. Why were you here? I didn’t think a DJ like you would like to hear a cello. Um... no offense.”
“Let’s just say I wanted to hear which message you put in your music. If it was about friendship, or not”
After saying that, the musician left the room, leaving Octavia in confusion.
When Vinyl went back home, the only thing she could do was just sit down before the table and look at the wall. She didn’t even realize that the sun had already begun to move down, painting everything around in dark orange color. But what she did realize is what kind of message Octavia had been sending through her cello.
It wasn’t something about friendship, rather, it was something about loneliness.
Vinyl knew that for sure, it was all because of her. And the guilt destroyed her.
“Damn it!” she suddenly screamed and hit the table with her hoof “Damn it! DAMN IT!”
She was mad. Mad at Octavia, who had forgotten her, mad at Evening Star, who showed her the philharmonic building. But mostly she was angry at herself, for leaving her best friend alone. The silent and unsociable Octavia didn’t have many friends, and Vinyl may have been her only closest one.
And even knowing that she still left Canterlot.
“RRRRGHH...” the musician roared “IDIOT!”
She hit the table again, now with her head. The glasses that she still didn’t take off fell down from her head, onto the floor.
*Crunch*
A second face-table snapped a little piece of wood off, and the sharp end of the chip cut her forehead. But it didn’t matter to her. And it didn’t matter even when a thin trickle of blood flowed on the table, mixing with unicorn’s tears. Nothing mattered except for what she had done to one of her best friends.
A fourth memory surfaces.
“Vinyl Scratch, don’t you dare to forget me!”
“That’s what I wanted to say, Octavia. Here, take this.”
The unicorn threw her friend a purple bow tie.
“I want to see you with this bow tie when you become a famous cellist. I’m going to be at one of your concerts randomely, and you better be wearing that” Vinyl said.
“Wow, thanks! I actually have something for you too. Close your eyes.”
“Oh, come on, Tavi.”
“Close your eyes.” her friend persists.
The unicorn sighed but still complied with the request. There was no arguing with her. After a while, she felt that something had descended on her eyes. And when she opened them, the world was colored in purple.
“Tavi, this is...”
“You said you wanted them, so I just went out and bought them for you yesterday.”
“But... How?...” the unicorn broke off “They were very expensive! When did you...”
“Don’t worry about it. Just come back someday, okay? Don’t leave me all alone, you hear?”
“Octavia... Thank you.”
Vinyl hugged her best friend and hopped on the train. She was at the window, watching as her friend vanished in the distance, until she became just a little dot.
“I am such an idiot...” the unicorn mumbled through tears “Why haven’t I even written her a single letter?”
Another strike with a hoof this time, but weaker. Vinyl continues laying there, face on the table. She sobs, while weakly pounding the table with a hoof.
“It’s all my fault...” she whispered before falling asleep “It’s all my fault...”
*Yawn*
The gray earth pony loudly yawned and rubbed her eyes before opening them. The clock was been showing eleven so without a second thought the mare stood up from the bed.
“Funny,” she had been thinking while brushing her teeth “It has been three days and I still can’t stop thinking about that DJ. She looks so familiar, Even if I don’t remember her performing in Canterlot before...”
The cellist was lost in thoughts for a while, but a few seconds later, she just shrugged and got back to brushing.
“Eh. Probably saw somepony who looks like her. It’s not that surprising.” she came to a conclusion she had already come at the last three days.
After brushing her teeth and mane, the pony went to the fridge. There, on the door, a little piece of paper had been hanging - a to-do list the mare wrote yesterday.
“Hm... okay, first one is to clean the house.”
This one didn’t take too much time.
The cellist’s house wasn’t too big and had only one floor. The first fifteen years she had been living with her parents, but after a while decided to get her own place. Her parents weren’t against it and even helped her with finding a good place. It was a silent and nice neighborhood, where no one disturbed one another without a reason. The kind of something the musician liked.
“Second one...” the mare continued down the list “Shopping. Ugh.”
If there was something the cellist didn’t like to do, it was shopping. Walking around the market, looking for something that will catch your eye, had never been her favorite thing. To big of crowds, to many ponies all in one place. It was like those dubtrot concerts she went to once. But thanks to pre-made meals she had been buying, she only had to go to one stall, and stock up on them.
So, putting a broom aside, the pony took a bag and went outside.
The weather was nice. Unlike in the beginning of the week it was warm and the scarf became quite useless. Of course it had been only temporal - the winter wasn’t too far away, after all. The pony breathed deeply and looked around. Not a single soul around, which wasn’t surprising - at that time everyone should be at their jobs. She loved the quiet of ot. If it wasn’t for her own day-off, the cellist herself would’ve been on a rehearsal, practicing before her performance.
“Look out!”
A loud cry reached mare’s ears and a moment later, she was knocked away from her door. When the rolling stopped, the cellist saw someone’s back in the front of her face.
“Ugh...” groaned this someone “Stupid bag...”
“Excuse me, but can you get off me first?” the musician politely asked.
“Oh, sorry, my bad. Octavia?”
“Evening? What the bloody hell are you doing here?”
“Delivering some mail, what else can I do?”
Evening Star pointed at her bag. If one took a careful look at it, the reason for the pegasus crashing was obvious - a belt was wrapped around her wing, and prevented it from flapping. Figuring this out, Octavia shook her head.
“You should be careful, Evening.”
“I know, I know. Are you okay? It would be really bad if you have injured your hoof.”
“No, I’m alright. Well, I’ve got to go do some shopping.”
“Oh, wait for me then, I need to do shopping to!”
“Sure.”
“But... do you mind walking to the end of the street with me?”
***
After delivering the rest of the mail, the pegasus was free. Finally the two mares headed to the market. Evening remembered how three days ago she went there with another pony.
“Come to think of it,” she thought “I haven’t seen her since then.”
But even if she hadn’t seen her in a while, she had nothing to worry about. The lights in the pony’s house were on at evenings and they were turning off at the right time. And that was pretty much the only sign that Evening’s neighbor was alive and nothing bad had happened to her.
“So, what do you need at the market?” Evening Star asked Octavia “Pre-made dinner again?”
“Yep.” Octavia shortly answered.
“And why don’t you learn how to cook?”
“Nah, it’s too hard for me. I can’t even cook soup.” This sparked something in her head, but it didn’t come to frutition.
“Are you kidding?”
“No, I’m serious. So, pre-made meals are not my whim, they are my need.”
“Well, I might have, but I don’t remember - it was too long ago.” She can feel a memory bubbling up in the back of her mind, but not doing anything productive.
While talking, mares entered the market and merged with the crowd. As soon as Evening was in, she literally flew to a fruit pavilion and bought a pack of strawberries.
“Strawberries?” Octavia lifted her eyebrow, for it wasn’t like her friend to buy strawberries. But some friend of hers had loved strawberries. Who was it?
“Yup... “ Evening chewed before answering “I never liked them before, you know. It’s Vinyl who made me love them.”
“Vinyl?”
“Yeah, you know, that famous DJ. She came here four days ago and lives next to me.”
“Huh...” The back of her mind bubbles even more furiosly.
“So, we went to the market three days ago, and then argued about berries. And that’s when she convinced me that not every strawberry is sour. Funny, it all begun with a can of strawberry cookies.”
The mention of cookies lets the memory that had been bubbling loose.
“Hey, Tavi, you like cookies?”
“Of course! Who doesn’t?”
“And which flavor do you like?”
“Apple!”
“And I like strawberry. There is something nice in it, like... like... Argh, I can’t describe it!”
“Hey, I think I’ve seen a jar of strawberry cookies in the cupboard!”
“Neat! Let’s go get it!”
Octavia shook her head. The memory came back, but why did it bring back such powerful feelings with it?
While the mare had been thinking, Evening finished eating berries and threw an empty package to the trashcan. Shortly after that she pulled Octavia to the next pavilion. There she bought vegetables and took a packet from the vendor. This packet was so big that it barely fit inside her bag. Now, if the mail pegasus wanted to buy something else, she had to carry next packet in her mouth. Which she actually did after buying a lot of cupcakes.
“So, who is this Vinyl?” Octavia asked.
“Huh? Well, she had been my neighbor since we were fillies.” Evening said “But she moved to another city when she was... fourteen, I think.” More connections inside her head.
“And she became a famous DJ?”
“Pretty much. I’m not surprised though - she graduated from the musical academy, so I guess it is something she likes.”
“The musical academy? But I graduateed there too... Is it possible that I actually know this mare?” Octavia stopped. There were no memories of that time in her head, but something told her she was not completely wrong.
A second recollection bursts into her mind.
“A musical academy? Why?”
“I want to become a famous musician!”
“A famous musician, huh? Hm... It’s not a bad idea...”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll go there with you!”
“What?! We don’t need the academy destroyed!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be very careful.”
“This again...” Octavia whispered.
“Huh? Did you say something?” Evening asked, confused.
“No, it’s nothing. Okay, let’s begin the shopp.. Oh...” only now the cellist realized that her companion already had everything she needs. As fast as she could, the mare got to the pavilion she needed and bought a bunch of pre-made meals. Six big packages barely fit inside of her bag, but somehow she managed to pack them. And they were everything she wanted to buy. Watching this Evening Star just shook her head. Pre-made meals obviously weren’t an appetizing meal to her. With that their shopping was over and all they had to do now is just get to their homes.
“Are you busy?” Octavia asked when they got to her house “You can stay for a while if you want.”
“Sure,” Evening quickly answered “Come to think of it, I’ve never been at your place before.”
“You’ll be disappointed if you were imagining it as a place with bunch of cellos and bows.”
“What? I didn’t... well, maybe once, but...”
The cellist giggled and opened the door, letting her companion in. As soon as the mare was inside, she began running around, carefully looking at everything she could see. Only after two laps around the entire house, this little tornado stopped and said:
“Nice place. Comfortable and not too big.”
“Thanks. Actually, the main reason I bought it is that no one disturbs you here.”
“Oh... that’s... nice?”
Lively Evening couldn’t understand why someone would want to live in silence. Peace had been just killing her, and she couldn’t stand still even for a few seconds. One moment you could see her in one place and after you blink, she could be somewhere far away.
“Want some tea?” the cellist shouted into the deep of the house.
“Yeah, please!” the answer coming from there didn’t make her wait.
Octavia nodded to herself and began brewing the tea. It was the only thing she could cook without failing it. Well, if brewing a tea could be considered as cooking.
“Octavia!” she heard Evening’s cry “You didn’t tell me you know Vinyl!”
“What? No I don’t”
“Then how do you explain this?” Evening Star said from behind the musician.
She showed Octavia a little album which, Octavia was sure, she left at her parents’ house. It contained a bunch of photos, and each one of them showed two little fillies: one with gray coat and dark gray mane and the filly with a pale-yellow coat and blue mane with cyan stripes. She looked just like the mare that came to the philharmonic building three days ago.
“We’re late, we’re so late!”
“Don’t sweat it, Tavi, we’re fine!”
“We are late for our graduation ceremony, damn it! It’s NOT fine!”
Two mares have been running toward the musical academy. Both of them were putting on their robes on the run and holding their caps with their mouths. Soon they were at the entrance and this is when they realized that the passes were left at their homes.
“Rrrrgh...” Octavia groaned “And what are we going to do now?”
“Don’t worry; I’ve got it in my hooves”
Saying this, Vinyl used the levitation spell and moved both her and her friend behind the wall.
“Oh yeah, I forgot that you can do that. Now run!”
And their race against the time continued.
Where are these memories coming from? A spark flashes across her mind.
“We’ve been in the academy together.”
“Really?”
“She went there because of me. And I... and I had completely forgotten about her...” The spark reawakens an entire section of her memory.
“Octavia?”
“Where is she now?”
Evening looked at the clock. It showed eight in the evening.
“I think she should be at the station right now.”
“What?!”
“Yeah, I think she said something about going back to Manehattan today...”
Octavia ran outside without saying the word and leaving Evening in confusion. She watched the owner of the house running to the railway station and smiled.
“Well, I don’t think she would mind if I actually drank the tea without her.”
She was just glad that Octavia didn’t notice little letters on the cover of the album. They were shaping two words which were the name of the owner.
“Evening Star”
“Well,” the pegasus said to herself as if answering to Octavia “Someone had to make those photos, right? You both are still such a pain in the flank. And what she doesn’t know can’t hurt her.”
***
The train had been ready to begin its way. By now all the passengers were in their seats already. All but one.
Vinyl sighed, depressed
Vinyl Scratch was standing in front of the carriage and still hadn’t decided if she should go back to Manehattan. Sure she had a house there, but after coming back to Canterlot, she realized that there is no place better than your home town. Everything she had left behind came back to her, making her realize how much she had missed since leaving.
“Vinyl!” a distant cry reached her ears.
“Must be just my imagination.” the musician thought.
“Vinyl!” she heard the cry again, closer than before.
And when the unicorn turned around, she couldn’t believe her own eyes.
“Octavia?”
Octavia huffs “Made it...”
“What are you doing here?”
“SORRY!” Octavia shouted when she caught her breath.
“Wha...” Vinyl was surprised.
“I’m sorry, Vinyl... I’m sorry I forgot about you... I’ve been mad at you... I wanted to bring back those times... Why didn’t you remind me? Ponies forget things, important things! I...”
The unicorn hugged her friend.
“It’s all my fault. I haven’t even written you a letter in these five years.”
“I thought you’ve forgotten about me...”
“No, I haven’t. See these sunglasses? I always wear them; they reminded me of you all these years.”
The train whistled, noting everyone around that soon it will depart. Octavia looked at the mare in front of her with her eyes covered in tears and silently said:
“Don’t go away. Please, don’t leave me again.”
“I won’t.”
The last whistle had sounded and the train moved. Slowly it began to gain speed and passengers who’ve been looking in windows could see two mares, hugging each other on the platform.
