//------------------------------//
// A chance encounter 
// Story: Highschool 
// by vinylcloud 
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	It was a regular old warm summers night under the starry sky of Canterlot. Everything was right, all the shops shut down the streets deserted. With nopony anywhere and only the faint hum of the light crystals hanging from their poles up and down the streets. Vinyl thought It was the perfect night to be sneaking out. She didn't really have any particular reason to be leaving her house. To get away from the other inhabitants if only for a short time was a blessing in itself. Every hoofstep away from that house felt like it was setting her just a little bit more free. 
Vinyl would often walk these same streets to clear her head or just to be out and away from her family. She liked taking walks under the starry sky. Nighttime was one of the few times Vinyl felt like she was truly alone it was the only time she could think to herself. Sure there was always the option to think at home but there was a certain air of oppression that hung in her house stifling any kind of thoughts never leaving until she got out of the house. Whenever Vinyl wanted to do some real thinking she was forced to leave that place very seldom could she find peace within the walls of that house. Out here in the seemingly abandoned streets of Canterlot she felt like she could truly express herself and that nothing was going to hold her back. 
She walked up the street in no particular hurry just enjoying the electric humming of bass pounding in her ears and the sights of the night sky above her. The stars seemed to glow and shine down like thousands of tiny pinpricks in a black cloth giving way to sunlight. Vinyl could stare at the sky for hours whether it be picking out the constellations or just enjoying a nighttime sky filled with stars. Vinyl had always been somewhat nocturnal never really being awake until the night. 
The starry sky was one of the most beautiful things in the would she never knew how some ponies could neglect how beautiful the night sky could be. There was no moon out tonight  What a shame. Vinyl thought. she had always loved looking at the moon scanning it from the top to bottom moving from darker spots to lighter ones. She had probably stared up at the moon for more hours than she would care to count but she could never quite remember what it looked like once it was gone.  
Glancing up and down at the lit streets of east Canterlot's suburbia nopony anywhere in sight, that was just the way she liked it. In the day she might not seem like a shy pony but the truth was people genuinely scared her. It hadn't always been like that but ever since she had started going to highschool everything had changed partly because all her friends hadn't got into her music school and partly because of the ponies that did. The act she put up in the day was a mask carefully constructed in the past two years it wasn't really Vinyl it was there purely to keep other ponies away. The only time Vinyl could ever really stop her act and be herself was when she was alone She was different enough from the snooty ponies in Canterlot already but the act she put up with Djpon3 was enough she thought to push her over the edge too unapproachable and it worked fairly well to be honest. In the two years she had been at Celestia's school for musically gifted ponies she had only ever been approached once. And that was before she had donned her signature purple shades and became djpon3. The way that had ended made Vinyl want to have nothing to do with anypony else at that awful highschool.
The music played through Vinyl's headphones at a volume threatening to blow out her eardrums. Vinyl hardly even noticed the mint green mare slowly trotting over to her lunch table. Vinyl looked up, finally noticing the mare now at the side of her table and took hold of her headphones in her magical grip gently pulling them down till they were hanging at her neck. The light green mare spoke up "Hi um Vinyl is it" she said while taking a seat.
"Yeah that's me i don't think we've ever met. Who are you?" Vinyl said curiously eyeing the green mare.
"Oh sorry I'm Lyra we have musical theory together but we've never really talked before."
Vinyl vaguely remembered a light green mare from here musical theory class but to be fair musical theory to Vinyl was just code for nap time.
"Look, I'm going to be really blunt about this. Would you want to go out with me sometime."
Vinyl sat there stunned not sure what to say"Is she really asking me out?" Vinyl thought to herself
realizing the green unicorn was staring at her expectingly. She spoke up "I-I don't know maybe sometime i'm not sure." The green unicorn slowly stood up sliding a piece of paper over to Vinyl with her magic. 
"Well when you do decide just give me a call." She said slowly walking away. Vinyl took a look at the paper on it were scrawled 7 numbers.
Vinyl struggled to push the memory out of her head she started walking again not realizing that she had stopped. That was almost two years ago but it still hurt just as much as it had all that time ago. Vinyl thought back on her time from highschool it seemed like as soon as she had started everything in her life had become exceedingly difficult. From the kids at school constantly tormenting her to the yelling and screaming at home the past two years had been nothing but terrible for Vinyl. The only way she had made it this far was music if it wasn't for music Vinyl would probably be dead. Music was the only thing that brought her any small amount of happiness. Her Ipod and headphones went everywhere with her if somepony had to guess they would probably say the headphones might as well be glued to the inside of her ears.
Vinyl started making her way down another street a gust of wind blowing her mane into her face. Vinyl brought a hoof to  her face brushing her mane out of her eyes. When she noticed something a grey blob on the sidewalk up ahead it looked surprisingly pony like. "Oh my god." Vinyl said in shock her pace picked up to a full canter rushing over to the unmoving grey pony lying on the sidewalk. Stopping right next to the grey earth pony Vinyl noticed she wasn't moving. "Oh please don't be dead." No response. Vinyl gulped, looking closer Vinyl noticed her chest slowly moving up and down. Vinyl leaned down slowly poking her in the chest with a hoof. "Hey wake up." She said perhaps a little too quietly. Vinyl poked her again, "Come on wake up." Vinyl thought she saw the grey earth ponies hooves move slightly but she still didn't wake up. Now grabbing her by the shoulders Vinyl shook her practically screaming "Hey wake up!" The grey earth ponies eyes shot open an ear shattering scream emanating from her mouth.



Thirty minutes before

Octavia slowly crept out of her home carefully closing the backdoor to her house. She had been extremely quiet in walking through the house to get this far if she slipped up now all of that wouldn't matter. She was being extra careful not to wake up her parents or sister at this ungodly hour she walked ever so slowly towards the sidewalk next to her house. Carefully stepping to avoid making any unnecessary noise. even though she was outside now and there were no floorboards to creek or steps to trip on now but she couldn't ever be too careful. Finally making it to the sidewalk she relaxed a bit and started steadily walking down the street.
Octavia was always a careful mare never one to make rash decisions she had always planned out everything she did down to the very last detail. So one might ask what a pony who spent so much time making her choices and planning her actions was doing making such a impulsive decision like sneaking out of her house late at night. Truly Octavia had no reason to be out so late. In fact the punishment her parents would surely give her if they found out she was sneaking out should have been enough to steer her away from doing anything like this. But for some reason Octavia couldn't understand the pull to be outside the urge to feel her hooves hit the cool slabs of concrete under her hooves outweighed all common sense or reason. 
This wasn't the first time Octavia had felt like this but every time she told her parents or her sister about the strange urge to be outside they had simply dismissed her. After enough time Octavia had just simply stopped mentioning it. For Octavia a lot of things had been like that her parents offered her almost no support in her musical career and Octavia believed they had always thought her sister was better than her in every aspect. Because of this Octavia had pushed herself as hard as she could her entire life hoping that one day she would look equal in her parents eyes that day hadn't come and Octavia feared it never would. Octavia never held this against her sister instead turning her resentment to her parents. At the end of the day it all boiled down to one thing her sister and parents were all unicorns in fact everyone in Octavia's family besides her grandfather were unicorns. 
Octavia was an outcast, a sore thumb sticking out in both her family and at school. She had never really made any friends at school instead of socializing with other ponies she had reserved herself to being quiet and attentive. That's not to say she had never tried to make friends with anypony she had numerous times every time ending in bitter failure. Whether at school or at home Octavia was one thing, lonely.
Octavia could only ever find comfort doing one thing, playing her cello the way her bow moved across the strings producing the most haunting of melodies to the brightest of tunes always calmed her mind. every time she played those strings it was like her mind was sent to another world where all her worries and troubles seemed to melt away into nothing. Without her cello Octavia didn't know how she would have made it through the sixteen years of hell that she called her life.
Octavia had been so lost in thought she hadn't realized where she had been going not that she really had a goal of getting anywhere. A quick look at the buildings surrounding her revealed that she had only walked a few blocks away from her home. Her gaze drifted from the buildings to something far far above them. The stars in the sky were beautiful they took her gaze and held it captive within their beauty. Before she knew what was going on her legs started moving again towards some unknown destination. She was so caught up in looking skyward that she hadn't realized where she was stepping she tripped on a piece of concrete that was jutting an inch above the rest. It all happened so fast she barely realized that she was falling before she the side of her head hit the ground knocking her unconscious.