----------
*flash back*
"We want you to be happy, my dear Octavia." her mother told her.
"We have given you both of our life savings to do whatever it is you wish to do." her father said as he laid beside the mare. Octavia looked on to the two sickly ponies in despair.
"All we want you to do is to keep smiling and make us proud!" the mare added. Octavia sat on the floor, silent. Her black mane falling over her tearing eyes.
*out of flash bak*
----------
"And not long after, they passed." Octavia gulped, her gaze unmoving from the mug.
"Octy, I'm so sorry. I didn't-"
"I wandered the streets every night with no goal, no dream, no aim and nopony to turn to."
She continued, oblivious to Vinyl's interruption.
----------
Flash back
Octavia's eyes were fixated on the pavement passing beneath her hooves. Heavy rain fell on her mane and coat, drenching them completely and causing her mane to fall flat. However, she seemed unfazed, wandering aimlessly down the same street she had been trotting down for almost a month.
----------
*out of flash back*
"I wandered the streets every night with no goal, no dream, no aim and nopony to turn to. I had actually considered taking my own life away just so I could be with them again, but their wish stayed clear in my mind. It was that memory that kept me living. I had begun to live day by day. I would wake up in the morning, unsure of where to go, what to do. I was a filly thrown into the world without any sense of purpose. Until one day, I heard this wonderful sound."
----------
Flash back
The beautiful, enchanting melody resonated from inside a shop Octavia had passed many times while wandering the streets. She had never thrown a second glance at the shop as it lacked any signs or notices. Its windows were always boarded up, preventing anypony from seeing inside it. Octavia had always thought that the shop was uninhabited and ignored it. Now, however, the alluring music had drawn her into a trance. Her eyes glazed over; no more were they half opened and filled with sadness as she pushed open the old, creaky door.
When the door swung open slowly, the music got significantly louder. Octavia took her first steps in, feeling as if she was being pulled by an invisible rope. The shop was almost completely empty, save for a few cardboard boxes strewn around randomly throughout the small room. Octavia's eyes automatically found themselves drawn towards the source of the music. Towards the back of the room stood a stallion gripping a large, brown instrument in his left hoof and a long bow in his other.
The stallion's coat was a very light shade of yellow and his mane was short and pearl white. His face and body featured several wrinkles, showing his old age to the young filly approaching him slowly. As she got closer, Octavia could se the stallion had his eyes shut tight as he moved the bow seamlessly through the strings, constructing the grand theme which hypnotized the grey maned pony.
--------*out of flash back*
"I couldn't comprehend the music which was being forged from that wooden object he was grasping."
--------
*flash back *
Octavia saw the elderly pony open his eyes and focused on her. Her wide, innocent gaze was focused on the instrument the stallion grasped. The stallion smiled warmly towards the drenched filly but her mouth didn't change from its emotionless state. Octavia watched as the stallion sat the instrument against a wall before going into the back room and appearing with a tall stool in his hoof. Sitting the stool down exactly where he stood before, he lifted her up. It was a strange feeling for Octavia. For some reason, she didn't feel threatened by the pony that was gripping her. In fact, she felt safe with him.
---------*out of flash back*
"I trusted him. I did. I still do not understand why up to this day. Regardless, when I was finally seated, he,"
----------*flash back*
The stallion lifted Octavia's left hoof, positioning it around the instrument's neck. He then lifted her right hoof, placing the bow on it and gripping it shut. The stallion proceeded to lift her right hoof on the string on the instrument before stepping away, his gaze locked onto the filly.
--------*out of flash back*
--
"When I slid the bow over the string for the first time,"
----------*flash back*
Octavia looked down at the tools she held in her hooves before nervously sliding the bow over one of the strings for the first time, causing a note to resonate throughout the store.
----------*out of flash back*
"…something took over me."
----------*flash back*
Her eyes were closed shut, her body swaying with each pass of the bow and her hooves guided by a force she couldn't understand. Her mind had been lost to the melody that was being released with each pull of the bow, not even thinking of where her hooves should be next on the instrument. Octavia just knew. Her mind had been washed away from all the worries that had plagued her. All of her thoughts had emptied out into the world she didn't think existed anymore. As she continued playing, a large, sincere smile started to stretch across her face, tears forming at the edges of her eyes.
----------*out of flash back*
"I had never cried tears of joy before that moment. I never imagined I ever would. When I played that cello, time seemed to fall apart, for when I opened my eyes, the stallion had vanished. The cardboard boxes were gone and the only remnant of the event that had just unfolded was the instrument I gripped in my hoof. I was alone again yet I felt surprisingly calm. However, peace and purpose was not all I had earned that day-"
----------*flash bak*
Octavia leapt off the tall stool, her left hoof holding tightly onto the neck of the cello. As she fell to the floor, the bow slipped out from under her right hoof. When her hooves touched the hard wooden floorboards, she turned her head around to pick up the bow when she noticed something she never had before. There, on her flank, was a large pink treble clef. Octavia's mouth quickly grew into a huge grin. She had earned her cutie mark! Biting tightly onto the bow, she dragged the heavy instrument out of the door and into the sunny streets outside.
----------*out of flash back*
"When I left that store, I was changed. I had not only earned my cutie mark, I had earned a purpose in life, one which I had lacked since my parents passed. However, I still wish that I could thank that old stallion for rescuing me. I had been saving my parent's money for the right moment and this was it!"
---------flash bake
Octavia pulled the flyer off the notice board.
Do you love music?
Do you dream of becoming a popular musician?
Then come to Canterlot and join the Canterlot Music Academy today!
----------*out of flash back*
"And that's where I met you, Vinyl." Octavia lifted the mug to her lips once more, taking another sip of the soothing hot chocolate before lowering it back down onto her lap. "When I was at the academy, I only wanted to make my parents proud. I studied hard, made all the effort to be the top student in class."
"And you did! You were the top student in our year!" Vinyl remarked.
"Yes, and I got a successful career in a band to play at the most prestigious events in Cantelot. However, in doing so, I had forgotten the very reason my parents wanted me to keep living."
More coming
