A World I Wasn't Meant For

by Abstract Spectrum

Chapter 1: Inquiry

"And now, fillies and gentlecolts, put your hooves together for the amazing, the one, the only, OCTAVIA!" The announcer yelled, his voice bouncing off the walls of the large concert room. Clapping ponies spread standing all across the floor looked up at the stage as Octavia took her place on it. They silenced their cheers as Octavia setup her cello and lifted her bow. Taking a deep breath, she began the motion of sliding her bow across her cello's strings.

BZZZ. BZZZ. BZZZ. BZZZ.

"Huh?" Octavia said, confused. She looked at her bow, then her cello. Noticing nothing out-of-the-norm of both of them. She began to play again.

BZZZ. BZZZ. BZZZ. BZZZ.

It was then at the 2nd sound off of her alarm clock that she emerged from her slumber. The grey pony grumbled, yanking the covers over her head, attempting to drown out the sound of the alarm.

BZZZ. BZZZ. BZZZ. BZZZ.

She groaned again, and slammed her hoof down on the off button.

The grey mare stood up on the side of her bed in a drunken morning haze, rubbing sleep out of her eyes and yawning. She leisurely slithered out of bed and made her way over to the window to open the curtains. With the flash of the sun in her eyes, she quickly shielded them, making a loud grunting noise as the sun's rays welcomed her to a new morning.

"Tavi! Are you awake up there?" shouted Vinyl who was downstairs. Octavia said nothing. She then walked downstairs from her shared bedroom with Vinyl towards the kitchen. Octavia squinted her tired eyes when entering under the kitchen lights. She opened her eyes completely when her vision was used to the light, and yawned. The grey mare then approached Vinyl to see what she was cooking. Her sudden appearance in Vinyl's blind spot made her jump.

"Oh, you are up! It would've been nice if you woulda said somethin!" The white mare insisted.

Octavia only groaned once more, sat down at the breakfast table and laid her chin down on it.

"Somethin' wrong, Tavi? You seem a bit off."

"Ugh... It's nothing, Vinyl. Just one of those mornings." she complained.

"Well then you just sit tight there, sweetie. My pancakes can lift anypony out of their morning daze!" Vinyl boasted, pumping her hoof excitedly.

Octavia only smiled back at her, as she awaited her breakfast.

A few minutes later, Vinyl sat down at the breakfast table with Octavia and their breakfast. As Vinyl ate, she smacked her lips, and studied the sunrise outside. Octavia sighed. She stretched with another yawn, and began eating.

"So, what'dya dream about last night? Anything fun?" Vinyl asked as she studied Octavia, who was shifting pieces of pancake around her plate with one hoof while the other provided a stand for her head.

"Well... not exactly. I only dreamed of being the only mare in a large performance. Just me and my cello, being watched by thousands of other ponies who'd come to see me." The tired grey mare said with a sigh.

"Oh." Vinyl smacked her lips again. "I was just dreamin' about... huh..." Vinyl pondered, placing a hoof on her chin and looking up at the ceiling. "You know... I can't remember now. Heh, I hate it when I can't remember dreams. How do you always seem to remember yours?"

"Well uh... it wasn't very long. And uh... I couldn't stop thinking about it, either." Octavia said, eating more of her breakfast.

"Ah, okay."

With that, the room was quiet for several minutes. Only the sound of forks hitting plates were heard for some time. Eventually, after about ten minutes, Vinyl broke the silence.

"Hey Tavi?"

"Hm?"

"Why do you always seem to dream about being in some big symphony thing or something? Aren't you already in a lot of those?"

"Yes but... at our last show, very few ponies actually came to see us. The one before that had at least one-hundred, but this one had... about forty; maybe." Octavia's voice became a whisper at the last few words, as she looked shamefully down at her plate.

"Wow. That sucks." Vinyl burped. "Huh, 'scuse me." she finished.

Octavia giggled, handing her plate to Vinyl as she placed it and her own by the sink. Octavia stretched again for the last time that morning. She stood up out of her chair and grabbed her small brown fedora from the coat rack near the door.

"I'm going out for a walk, Vinyl."

"Ooh, can I come with?"

"Well uh... sure. Turn the kitchen light off, would you?" Octavia asked.

Vinyl did as instructed and walked out of the house after her grey marefriend, closing the door behind herself. Vinyl trotted quickly over to Octavia's side as she had already gotten a head start in front of her when they left.

"So Octavia, I actually wanted to come with you because I wanted to talk to you about how you've been feeling lately."

"Vinyl, I told you, I've just been having a bad morning."

"Yeah, that's what you said yesterday morning, too. And the morning before that, and the morning before that, and the morning before that, and the-"

"Okay Vinyl, I get it! But... I think it's too personal to go into."

"Oh, please!" Vinyl said sarcastically. "If my favorite gal ain't feelin' good, I wanna know what's up, I don't care how personal it is!"

"Vinyl, please!"

"C'mon, Tavi! You can talk to me! I'm your best friend! I'm your marefriend!"

"I said no!"

"Tavi, don't make me do this..."

"Do what?"

Octavia's angry and upset attitude was tranquilized when Vinyl gingerly and passionately touched lips with her grey marefriend. At first Octavia was surprised that Vinyl would do such a thing out in public, but eventually she closed her eyes and gave into the kiss. Suddenly pushing Vinyl and her seductive look away, Octavia sighed and looked towards the ground as she began to slowly walk again.

"Alright... fine. I know this may sound sappy but... here goes. The dreams I've been having lately, like you said they all have to do with me being the most famous cello player in Equestria. But when I wake up from those dreams I feel... lighter. Like something that meant something to me just... went away. And I feel that way because of..."

"Because of what?" Vinyl asked.

"Because of my parents."

"What do they have to do with this? Did they discourage you when you were young?"

"No, and that's just it! Growing up, my parents would always take me to the greatest symphonies and performances in Canterlot. My father once told me that he wanted me to be better than those performances. But he wasn't demanding, he was encouraging me to be better than the best. A few years later, when I got older; around sixteen years old or so, he made me my first cello. He taught me everything he knew about how to play it; how to make the most harmonic of sounds with such a simple instrument. It... it touched my heart the way he'd made it for me."

"Wow... so what's got you so down about that?"

"I still remember the words he said to this day.

My dearest, most precious Octavia. I want you to learn this instrument, unlock all it's secrets. I want you to play the most beautiful of masterpieces like no pony has ever heard before... for me... and for your mother, wherever she may be.

It wasn't long before those words became the ones I live by... when he passed away about a month after her search was called off."

Vinyl's eyes widened as she learned more than she'd bargained for about her marefriend.

"How'd he die?"

"Suicide. When the search for my mother was called off after 4 months, my father went..."

"Crazy?"

"Yes. That's why there's that sealed off part of Canterlot where all of the burned and destroyed buildings are."

"Damn." Vinyl said, looking towards the ground, then back up at Octavia.

"Yes, well... the thing that's been bothering me lately is with all those dreams... it reminds me of what he said... and the fact that I've never lived up to those words after so long."

"Listen, Tavi, it's just gonna take some time! Ponies will-"

"Start coming to my shows more? As if, Vinyl. Remember what I told you this morning? There are less and less ponies coming to these orchestral concerts! NOT MORE!"

"Tavi... I-"

"NO Vinyl, people are losing interest in my music. I'll never live up to what my father wanted me to be, and I'll never keep up with all this beep-bop-wub-wub crap everyone's playing! It's just not me, Vinyl!" Octavia yelled with tears pouring from her eyes. Octavia began to run home, while Vinyl was left to stand around and look at the ponies around her giving her an awkward stare. Vinyl slowly backed away, and followed after Octavia.

Comments

[Cows With Guns]

Very promising start, I cant wait for more!

If I may make one suggestion, when you wrote: 'The announcer yelled, his voice bouncing off the walls of the large concert room, creating an echo.', it seemed to be repeating the same statement twice over. His voice bouncing off the walls isn't creating an echo, it IS an echo. Just something which I noticed.

[Yuriegh]

interesting I guess I read to many fics where octy is cook :P

but the story seems good and so do you

have a thumb a fave and one

[DaMagiks]

Awesome!
Apart from the vague melodramatic backstory I really think this has potential.
I like how you have Vinyl more mature in this but still has that goofy element to her and Octavia's problem is easy to sympathize with.
Now go write more

[Dustchu]

Hmm, promising start, I like it.
I feel bad for Tavi, I wanna give her a hug.

Nice start... nice start.