//------------------------------// // Octavia's First Day // Story: Octavia’s First Day // by ditzywhooves //------------------------------// It was Octavia’s first day of school in Ponyville. She entered her new classroom, and her new teacher, a green pony with her white mane in ponytails, said hello and introduced herself as Miss Apple Smith. Octavia said hello to the class, and she was told to sit next to a mysterious filly with a blue mane and headphones. She sat down in her seat and smiled and said hello to blue haired filly, but she just nodded back and continued to listen to her music. Octavia, a bit taken aback, thought this was rude, but she was intrigued by the mysterious pony. After the lesson, she went to break, and a group of foals in the class asked her if she wanted to come over and sit with them. She sat down, and a colt by the name of Filthy Rich introduced himself. After he had, he noticed that she had no cutie mark, and asked where it was. Octavia panicked, and said that she hadn’t found out what her destiny was going to be quite yet. Filthy laughed, and all the other fillies joined in with him and started calling her a blank flank. Upset, Octavia ran off and hid behind a tree. Octavia did not enjoy being alone on her first day and she really wanted somepony to be friends with. She was feeling a bit homesick. She thought back to her time up in Canterlot, and how she was missing her best friend, and started to cry. She sat there sobbing, but stopped when she realised that somepony was playing music, and liking the sound of it she went to see who was playing it. She got closer to the sound, and saw it was coming from the blue maned pony from her class. As Octavia approached her, the pony looked around and saw her coming. Startled, she quickly turned off the music and tried to walk off, but Octavia called out to her to ask who made the music. The blue maned pony quietly answered her, but Octavia couldn’t hear her, so asked her to repeat what she said. The pony replied louder this time, that she had. Octavia, surprised, told her that the music was really good, and the blue haired pony looked shocked, no one had ever told her that before, a sense of overwhelming achievement washed over her as she stood there and blushed. The bell rang for the next lesson, the pony introduced herself as Vinyl Scratch, and Octavia introduced herself once again. They walked into the next lesson together, and Octavia looked at Vinyl’s flank. She realised that Vinyl didn’t have a Cutie Mark either, and mentioned it. Vinyl at first thought she was making fun of her, and so acted a bit defensively, but then realised why Octavia had brought it up. Laughing, Vinyl told her that they should work together to find out their destinies. Octavia laughed back, but said it was a pretty good idea. Vinyl asked what she was into, to which Octavia replied that she was a fan of music as well. The two sat laughing together at the back of the class, and Octavia felt happy for the first time since she had arrived in Ponyville. She had managed to make a friend at last. After school, Octavia trotted over to her mother rather happily, and they started making the journey home. Vinyl came running and shouting after them asking her to wait up. When Vinyl finally caught up, she explained that she had asked her father if Octavia could stay over for a while, to which he had replied that it was fine, so Octavia looked at her mother, and she nodded, so after kissing her mother on the cheek, they ran off to catch up with Vinyl’s father. Once they got to the house, both fillies went straight up to Vinyl’s bedroom, and Vinyl started showing Octavia all of her instruments and her DJ equipment, and explained that she wanted to be the best DJ in Equestria. As Octavia looked around amazed at what she could see, she came up with a bright idea. She asked Vinyl to show her how to use an instrument, and maybe she could help Vinyl come up with some new music to mix. So one by one, Vinyl showed her instruments, ranging from a drum kit, which Octavia managed to almost break after hitting the cylinder too hard, to an Electric Guitar, where Octavia broke the strings after being a bit rough with the strumming. At this point there weren’t many instruments left for Octavia to try and she was very close to giving up but Vinyl was persistent and had one more idea left to try. She told Octavia to stay where she was, and popped out the room. Octavia sat on Vinyls’ bed, and looked around the room. She noticed a rather large poster collection of some DJ’s. As she went over to have a closer look, she was looking at who some of them were. She recognised a couple of names, such as Saddle House Mafia and DeadHor5e, but then, she noticed a number of posters featuring one pony. She couldn’t see a name on the posters, but looking at the way they were set out, they must have been Vinyl’s favourite DJ. She noticed that the mysterious DJ was wearing a pair of glasses, and came up with an idea. She heard Vinyl coming back, and moved away from the posters. As Vinyl came through the door, Octavia noticed she was carrying what seemed like a large acoustic guitar. A bit confused, Octavia asked how she could possibly play something like that. Vinyl explained that it belonged to her mother, and they kept it after she passed away, and that every so often, she likes to play it, and that she finds it’s a calming instrument. She told Octavia that it seemed the kind of instrument that she would be good at and passed it to her to try. Vinyl showed her how to hold and play it, and after a couple of tries, Octavia felt naturally attached to this instrument, and with this, she felt a certain feeling erupted within her filling her with a lust to play the instrument more and more. Vinyl was amazed at how good she was, and asked her to keep playing while she set up her decks. After setting up a beat, Vinyl told Octavia to try and play in rhythm to her music, and eventually, it fitted together like a jigsaw, at this moment they both knew they had discovered something very special. Vinyl was stunned at how good it sounded, and had an idea. Excitedly, she told Octavia they should enter the talent contest that the school was holding in a couple of days. Scared, Octavia said that they didn’t have enough time for practice, but Vinyl just laughed and said she was a natural at the Cello, and as long as she played in time to her beats, they would be fine. It was then time for Octavia to go home. She went downstairs with Vinyl to find her Father waiting for her. She introduced Vinyl, and then said goodbye. As Octavia and her Father left and started making their way home, she asked him is he still had those DJ friends in Canterlot. Her Father replied that he did, to which Octavia grinned at. For the next two days the fillies played all day and all night perfecting every beat of the music and every strum of the cello until the day their lives would change forever… The day had arrived. As they were mentally preparing to go, they watched the act before them, a magic act performed by some pink filly with a frizzy mane and a grey Pegasus with a blonde mane, the grey pony spiralled out of control and accidently knocked the magic cabinet over ruining the trick. After much hassle of getting the ditzy grey pony off the stage without breaking anything else, it was Vinyl and Octavia’s turn to take the stage. While Vinyl set up her decks, and Octavia sorted her Cello out, Filthy started shouted ‘Blank Flanks’ from the audience, too which his followers joined in. Upset, Octavia froze, and went to run off stage, but Vinyl stopped her, and explained how just because they haven’t got cutie marks, that doesn’t make them any less a pony. With renewed confidence, they took the stage, and got ready to start. “This is DJ-Pon3 and my girl Octavia, and we are here to make you enter our world and dance to the sound of our wubs!!” shouted Vinyl, to which she started her beats. Looking into the crowd, Octavia could see Filthy smirking at them waiting for them to fail, and with that thought in her mind, Octavia grabbed her cello, and started to play in time to Vinyl’s music. Everypony in the crowd started cheering and dancing, Octavia noticed Filthys face cloud over with anger. As their act came to a close, everypony gasped, and then Vinyl shouted over to Octavia to check her flank. Octavia quickly looked down, terrified of what she was going to see, but, there, on her flank, was a purple treble clef. She had earned her Cutie Mark at long last! She looked over at Vinyl excited, but noticed she didn’t look too happy. She trotted over and Vinyl congratulated her on earning it. Octavia said thanks, and then realised that Vinyl hadn't noticed hers. With a smile, she told Vinyl to look down, and to Vinyl's shock, saw a music note on her flank! She grabbed Octavia in a hug and started dancing around the place. Miss Apple Smith came over and congratulated them on acquiring their Cutie Marks, but told them they needed to sit down as they were about to announce the winners. They went down to the audience and took their seats, but Filthy came over, and continued to make fun of them despite them not being Blank Flanks anymore. Stubbornly, Vinyl told him to go away, he laughed and walked off. They heard a crash from behind, and turned to see that a box had fallen on him, and looked up to see the grey pony from earlier flying off, looking a bit sheepish. After everypony had a good laugh at Filthy’s expense, Miss Apple Smith got up on the stage and started to announce the top three performances. Third place was awarded to the Grey and Pink fillies, mainly for the comedy of the act and not the actual magic. Second place was awarded to a yellow Pegasus pony with a pink mane for her amazing bird choir, which was so beautiful it brought a tear to the judge’s eyes. Octavia looked around to see the pony, and seen she was hid under her mother’s wing. Then finally, it was time for Miss Apple Smith to announce the winner. After creating some tension, she announced that the winners won by a landslide for the sheer cleverness of the act and how well it was put together. To no surprise, she announced Vinyl and Octavia as first place, and they looked at each other and squealed with happiness and then proceeded to run up onto the stage. Miss Apple Smith handed them their ribbons, and told them congratulations. The next day, they met up in Sugarcube Corner to celebrate. Vinyl passed a small box to Octavia and Octavia looked at it puzzled and asked what it was. Vinyl explained that Octavia was the first friend she has ever made as she's always been seen as an outcast, and that it is nice to have somepony like her to chill out with, so she made her a little thank you gift. Octavia opened it, and in the box was a beautiful collar, with a bow. Vinyl piped up and said that it was the same colour as her Cutie Mark, and that she thought it would look good on her when she was playing her Cello. Wiping a tear from her eye, she said thanks to Vinyl and gave her a hug, and said that she was glad they’re friends. She then told her that her dad is going into Canterlot to get her a cello as a well done present. Vinyl paused for a moment, and told Octavia to stay where she was, and ran out. Confused, Octavia just sat there wondering where her friend had gone. A couple of minutes later, Vinyl returned with her mother’s cello in a case. She started to explain how she wanted her to have it as it suited it so well, and it would be better her having it , rather than it gathering dust. She laughed and then said that since they we’re a double act now, Octavia would need a decent cello so that she would be able to keep up with her awesome beats. Stunned, Octavia just didn’t know what to say. She just hugged Vinyl and cried. She had never been so happy in her life. Vinyl, told her to play something, to which Octavia replied, with a wink, not without you. They paid for their milkshakes and walked outside, where Octavia heard someone shouting her name, and turned around to see a mailpony walking over to her. He handed her a parcel, and she said thanks and gave him some bits. Suddenly realising what it was, she told Vinyl it was something for her. Vinyl ripped the package open, and inside were a pair of glasses with purple tinted lenses. Vinyl screamed with delight as she realised they were based off her hero DJ, ManeHunterz, but with her favourite colour for the lenses. She asked Octavia how she knew, and Octavia told her that she had seen them on the poster, and she asked her father to speak to his friends to find out where to get them. Vinyl ran and grabbed Octavia and pony-hugged her till Octavia couldn’t breathe. When Vinyl finally let go, she grabbed Octavia’s hoof, and said lets go, as they ran off to practise some more.