Cut Strings

by 0XIxIX0

The fall: part 1

It was raining.

The droplets hit the city outside like a percussion ensemble, creating a song of storms.

I viewed the scene from a large, wall sized window, the occasional lightning strike illuminating the rest of the room, driving away the forlorn shadows that hid in the corners.

I turned around to face the rest of the room. A single expensive looking couch was directly in front of me, faced away from the window. To the left, I spotted the kitchen and a table in the darkness. To the right was a row of doors, shadows streaking across the frames.

Another flash of lightning struck, brightening the room for a split second, before returning to the clutches of darkness.

I moved through the house, my hooves making a familiar clacking noise as they hit the hard wood flooring of the room.

My dark twin danced across the floor as I crossed the gap to one of the doors. I opened it, sending a creak resounding throughout the abode.

Inside, from what light was given, was a simple desk, with many, many different pieces of paper scattered over the surface. There was a book shelf hidden in the dark to the right, where books sat complacently. I knew every single title by heart. Next to that, was a shelf with different pictures resting on it, most of which had a thick layer of dust covering them.

I entered the room. I glanced at the table with the scattered papers. Some held a rather random series of numbers, but I knew what they truly meant. In the margins of a few of these were notes I had scribbled to myself in haste at the time I had made this, and on a rare occasion, I spotted some old lines of music bordering a few of them.

I quickly turned my head away.

I gazed at the photos lining the shelves. Most were impossible to see due to the high amounts of debris that stuck to the outer level of the frames, but a few were viewable.

The closest one that I could see that was not covered in dust held the photo of two equine figures. One was a young mare with a white lab coat on, with hints of a gray shaded body underneath. Her hair was a very dark gray, with hint of a lighter gray pulling through. She wore a bowtie, and rather thick-framed rectangular glasses. Glimpses of purple irises could be seen in the photo. She wore a serious, yet somewhat shy expression, appearing to look at the edge of the picture frame rather than at the viewer of the photo.

Next to her stood a stallion, with a carefree look on his face. He was wearing a similar lab coat, covering most of his gray-amber coat, as well as a triangular cutie mark, with most of it being covered up. His wild dark amber mane defied gravity, and he was winking to the camera, revealing a single azure eye.

I shifted to the next photo.

This one showed the mare from the previous photo, slightly older, with a longer mane, and with grayer highlights showing. She was sitting in what appeared to be a fancy restaurant, with a single empty plate in front of her. Across from her sat a near completely white pony, wearing shades. Her mane was wild and all over the place, with both cobalt and cyan coloring. She had traces of food around her mouth.

I turned away from the photos and exited the room, closing the door behind me. I entered a different room, this one with lighting in it.

Instruments were lined up against the wall. A double bass. A cello. A Violin. A viola. Several others were there as well, covered in bland white dust covered sheets. Stands for both instruments and sheet music were propped up against the wall opposing the string instruments.

I trotted over to the double bass, and pulled it off its stand. The familiar weight of the heavy string instrument comforted me. I picked up a bow nearby and got into playing position.

I played. I played a sad, hollow tune. A tune befitting of the atmosphere outside. A song for the rain. A song of broken dreams.

I don't know how long I played. I played for minutes, maybe. Perhaps it was hours. I only knew that when I had stopped, the rain was still pouring.
I was about to continue with another song, but a sudden knock resounded through the abode, knocking me out of the trance I was in. I put the instrument back in its proper place and cantered over to the door. I had not been expecting somepony to visit me at this time of the night, so it was extremely unusual for such an occurrence to happen.

The knocking continued, louder this time. The pony behind the door was impatient, I figured. I opened it.

On the other side of my gateway to the rest of the world, there stood a cloaked pony. I could not see his or her face, nor could I gain a proper description of the pony in front of me, other that they did not care for the rain, seeing as he or she had left a trail of water all the way to my doorstop.

“Are you Octavia?” The voice was muted, almost robotic in nature. It was clearly male, though.

I didn’t trust this strange, robed pony. Still, I replied. “And what if I am?”

The stranger took a step forward. “Then I will need for you to come with me.”

A floor board creaked under my hoof. “I am terribly sorry, but who are you?”

He took another step forward, the sound of dripping water following him. "That is none of your concern. If you will not comply, then I will have to take you by force."

I backed away from the stranger, looking for the nearest object to defend myself with. "Why do you need my services?"

"That is none of your concern." he said the line once more, in the exact same way. The same pitch. It was rather disturbing.

A nearby wine bottle caught my eye. "Well, I suppose..." I darted over to the wine bottle, and grabbed it by the neck. The stallion had started to run towards me as soon as I had started running, and was only a foot away. I took the cold glass in my hoof and brought it down upon his head.

Glass scattered across the floor and wine splashed across his cloak, becoming an addition to the rain water which was caught in the folds. At the moment of impact, his head dropped an inch, but he stood steady against the floor.

He lifted his head slowly into its previous position and rushed forward.

I rolled to the side, directly over the sharp pieces of glass that used to make up the wine bottle. There pain was horrible, yet manageable. I could feel the red liquid leak slowly out of the cuts, but I knew I had to move. I ran in the direction of the music room, knowing that I could at least find a weapon there, at the expense of my tools of trade.

I dashed towards the room I had previously exited from, pushing the couch in such a way to make a makeshift roadblock. The door appeared to be frighteningly far, and the darkness compiled with the rain made the atmosphere no better.

I opened the door with a shaky hoof, drops of blood littering the floor behind me, staining my mane and my hooves. The door opened up with a large amount of force behind it, slamming into the wall. I got inside and closed the door, taking a leftover stand and propping it against the knob. I then evaluated my surroundings for anything I could use to take the possible criminal out.

I grabbed a sheet covering a few of the more expensive pieces in the room. I then grabbed the largest object I could use as a weapon, my precious double bass, and propped it up against the wall, directly next to the door. During this, the door itself was under extreme stress from the beating it was undergoing from the stallion on the other side.

I tuned the light switch to cast darkness on the room, and waited.

The sound of the beating the door was taking it's toll on my psyche. Perhaps this is where I die? I knew I would live, though. I knew that this pony needed me for one reason or another, and he was going to get it, even if it was going to cost him his life.

The door started to cave. Pinpricks of light made their way through the door as wood chips fell to the floor. I held my weapons of defense tight. My left holding the sheet. The right holding the double bass, which, at the moment, did not seem so heavy anymore.

The door imploded. My heart raced, and in a fraction of a second, my hoof brought the sheet over the stranger.

With his sight and movement restrained, I brought the instrument of his doom up high in the air. I quickly brought it down, sending the sound of the tool's demise resounding through the house.

The stranger seemed to deflate under the sheet, before standing back up. I brought the now broken double bass down again. The body, which had been barely holding itself together on a few pieces of wood and string, were now completely shattered. The body of the life form under the sheet, which had been steadily rising, was now parallel to ground level, and not moving.

"Ha... Ha... Ha...." I tried to calm my brethren after the ordeal. I was worried now that I may have gone slightly overboard. I took a bow and poked the body. It didn't move.

I panicked slightly, increasing my heart rate once more. Questions ran through my mind. Did I kill him? What do I do now? Why was he here?

I paced back and forth, thinking about the situation I had gotten myself into.

I decided to check the body for any sort of identification. I lifted the sheet.

The last thing I saw was a cloaked hoof coming up to my face with the force of a falling piano.
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I felt cold.

Rain was falling. I could feel the drops running down my entire body. I tried to open an eye, but found it increasingly difficult to do so. When I did, a drop found it's way into the crack that became my window to the world, forcing it shut once again.

I could feel gravel being shifted under me. Or is it I that is moving while the gravel was stationary? My hooves felt chaffed, and they were extremely sore. I could feel something tugging me by my hooves, probably causing the discomfort I felt.

There was an increasing stinging feeling emanating from no true point on my body. I tried to pin point it, but it seemed everywhere. A quick moment of clarity revealed to me that it was probably from the glass.

My mind returned to a haze as I began to wonder exactly where I got the cuts. I tried to find where in my memory I received the information from, but all I found was a pile of blurry images and sounds.

I did not realize how much time had passed searching my thoughts for the lost and forgotten. By the time I had tried to open my eyes again, I found that I could not locate my exact position, even though I was sure I was still in the city.

"This is Octavia?" I had been so preoccupied trying to get a better understanding of where I was that I had not noticed that I had stopped. "You are slightly late."

The voice sounded exceedingly familiar, and tickled at my memory. "She put up a small amount of resistance. I had to knock her out."

This was strange. The voice sounded exactly like the previous one, except from a different location, one closer to her. "That explains the eye. What about the cuts?"

"That was due to her own foolishness. She rolled into a gaggle of shattered glass. I cleaned the wounds and pulled out the glass, but I still had to drag her here from the transport." A lightning bolt hit earth in the background. "We have to hurry. The storm the boss made will be over soon. The pegasi will have it cleared up in another thirty minutes."

The voice that was farther away spoke up. "You didn't bother to bandage her?"

"There was no time, and I have been in the apartment before. The amount of bandages needed to address to the wounds was sorely lacking." They had been in my house before. This was new information.

I twitched slightly as a raindrop landed once more in my eye. "It appears our guest has woken up."

I tried to struggle free of whatever was binding me at this point, but found no such luck. "Goodnight."

Pain and darkness were reintroduced to me.
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I woke this time to the smell of anti-septic and fresh laundry. I tried to get up, only to find myself constricted due to aches and pains. I slowly tried to open an eyelid, only to find that, once again, it was exceedingly difficult to accomplish and when I had opened it, it was only a hairline crack.

What I did see was a white, tiled ceiling, which had a fresh gloss on it, making it look shiny and new. I tilted my head to the side, to see a small sink and possibly the corner of a shower unit. I turned to the right and saw a mirror, of some sorts.

I decided to lay there and assess the damage to my body. I felt several scabs littering my body in all shapes and forms, creating an increasingly uncomfortable feeling. I tried to simply lift a hoof, and found it raised high in the air. I touched my face and found a massive amount of swelling around my eyes. I diagnosed myself with two black eyes, probably from an earlier skirmish. I searched my memory and found it to be extremely vague in detail in accordance to last night.

I followed a thread of memories, following a sudden storm hitting Canterlot and myself going home for the night. I played a piece to myself as I usually did during nights like those and was about to go to sleep after a brief glass of wine.

That did not happen, though. I met that stranger. Yes, and He tried to take me against my will. I bashed my favorite instrument against his head... He survived and knocked me unconscious.

I continued to delve into the memory. He needed me for something, but what for?

"Good morning Octavia. Have a nice nap?" a speaker hidden somewhere in the room sent the words bouncing across the room. The voice itself sounded layered, as though many different voices were speaking the same thing at the same time. "Oh dear. You do not look so well. Let me fix that."

I felt myself lifted in the air and a sudden bubble of what I knew was magic surrounding me. A comfortable warm feeling surrounded me and I could feel the swelling around my eyes deflating and my mind clearing. By the time the spell had finished, I felt as though I had just woken up from a very nice nap.

"Ah, that is much better on the eyes." The voice said. "Now, I bet you are wondering where you are and why you are here, don't you?"

I ignored the voice for a small amount of time to take in the surrounding area now that my sight had been restored. The room was incredibly small, perhaps the size of a very small bedroom. The floor was the same as the ceiling, a dull white tile. The mirror, which I thought was only a small portion of the wall adjacent to the bed, intact took up the entire wall. There was also a door a few feet away from the bed, which had no handle on it and appeared to be locked.

Once the observations were noted, I decided to respond to the voice. "Yes, I would very much like to know why somepony would drag a helpless mare all the way to wherever this is."

The voice laughed slightly. "Ha. Unfortunately, I can only answer one of the questions I posed to you." The voice paused, as if collecting his or her thoughts. "Octavia. Born 979 A.B. earned top marks all though primary and secondary school, and found an interest in physics of all sorts. Went the private study of a college professor in manehattan, one of the few who specialized in the subject. Built several working models of non-magic power generators. Dropped out near the end of the course after finding a true passion in the music industry. Joined the Canterlot symphony orchestra and made it to first chair cellist. Joined an ensemble were she played double bass. Parents: deceased. No close relatives."

The information surprised her. "Where did you get that?"

The voice laughed once more. "Where I got it is not an issue." the voice paused once again. "There are two reasons I took you Octavia. Two. Can you guess them Octavia?"

I thought for a moment. What could I possibly have that he would be interested in? Then I thought back to the profile he had on me. This pony could not have just taken anypony, so there had to be circumstances behind it. It was most definitely not my musical talent, due to the fact i see no instruments anywhere in the vicinity... There were two things on that profile this madpony mentioned which did strike me as odd, and those were most likely the reasons he or she took me."I have knowledge of advanced physics and I have no close relations..."

"Bingo! We have a winner!" The sound effect of a cheering stadium came up on the speaker. "Yes, you hit the nail on the head! I didn't expect any less, coming from you!"

"Why me, though? Why not some other scientist?" This question was one of the many swimming through my mind.

"Yes, yes... I guess I can answer that... You see, with the return of Luna, the night court was resumed. Now, from history, what was the night court mainly made up of?"

I immediately had an answer. "Thinkers. Inventors. Mathematicians. Scientists."

"Yes! Know, Luna has had around two years to find every aspiring polymath to join her court. That is a lot of time, and now she practically has every major player in the scientific world under her hooves. You know what would happen if I were to suddenly pluck one of these protégés out from under her royal highness?"

It becoming startlingly clear why he choose me. "The royal guard would be alerted..."

"And I would be ever so comfortable in a dungeon. You, however, escaped her notice, due joining the Canterlot symphony orchestra..."

So that was it. I was here based on a technicality. A simple happenstance of bad luck.

"What do you want me for?" I decided to see what this mad pony truly wanted me for.

"I guess I should lay me cards down on the table. What I want you to do is..." The door opened. "This."

I peered through the opening from the bed. Inside was a large circular room. The room was incredibly large, with nothing but a board with many different equations on it on the opposite end. She trotted over and observed the chalk marks that made the formulas on it. Some of them half finished, while others were crossed out. I tried to see exactly what they were trying to convey, but most ended in a way that would not make any sense. One, near the end of the board, caught my eye. This one was something I understood.

"oh my..."

"You understand what I want done now, don't you?"

"... You want me to build a machine that takes gamma radiation and converts it to magic..." the equation, although half finished, gave her enough of a clue to understand what he was trying to do. She understood what this could mean. With something like this, the pony behind the voice could power an explosion which could level half of Equestria, or even more. I shuddered at the implications of such a device.

"Haha! Good show, good show!" the voice continued in his laugh. "And then you are going to put that in practice!"

My eyes widened. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?! Radiation and volatile magic is what this equation entails! You would have to be stark mad or a genius to even attempt to try and pull it off!"

"Oh, I know. That is why I am having you do it, instead of me. I wouldn't be sure what to do if I died due to something like this..."

I was now completely sure that the pony who was acting as the voice was completely out of his or her mind. "There is no way I am going to play this game of yours."

"This is no game, I can assure you that much." The voice had become extremely serious, throwing me off. "Well, I'm feeling quite generous today! Might as well give you your first piece of equipment!"

"What are you-?" The sound of hydraulics boomed in the large room. A small, circular hole in the ceiling began to lower. "What is that?"

"You will see, you will see..." The circular platform had reached the center point of the middle of the room. I could see a slight glare reflecting off what was most likely some sort of metal. I slowly walked over to a position directly in front of the lowering platform. Once it had finished lowering, I got a complete look at the device resting upon it.

The device was a harness of sorts, with a metallic spinal column. The column was separated into many different segments, giving it a snake like look.. Off of this column came four metallic appendages with claw like ends to them. The appendages hung limply off of the stand it was on.

"That right there is a set of four opposable limbs. Nearly indestructible, radiation and magic proof, and can lift an astonishing amount of weight. Perfect for working with the materials that are required for this venture." So that was what they were. "Go ahead! Put it on!"

I thought about this. I knew that whoever this was most likely was not going to use this for any sort of good deed. "No."

"...What?"

I stood firm. "No. I will not be doing any of this. I would rather die of starvation or some other means than help you make this!"

"... Well, I am sorry to say that I was not expecting that response... But I did prepare for it."

This scared me. What could this pony have possibly done? "What did you do?!" The voice refused to respond. "Answer me!"

"H-hello?" That voice... It was one that put a horrifying possibility in my mind. "'Tavi? Is that you?"

"Vinyl? Vinyl! Are you okay? What has that pony done to you?" Question after question flew to my mind, completely blocking out any previous thoughts I may have had.

"'Tavi! It is you!" She breathed a sigh of relief. "Listen, don't worry about me. G-" The voice was suddenly cut off.

"Now you understand what is at stake, don't you? I have your best friend here with me and I could do anything to her... Including kill her. Now, do you see your options?"

The madpony had backed me into a corner. He or she was going to kill vinyl... I decided to take the route that made everypony happy.

"... Fine. But promise me; promise me you will release her when I am done with this."

"Sure! Sure! I will do as you say! Just put that on and get to work, will you? I do not have as much time as you think I may have." The microphone turned off, but just as quickly turned back on. "Oh, and those arms? They are necessary. Put it on."

I stepped onto the panel slowly, and looked it over. It was still as imposing as it was a few minutes ago, but I knew that I would have to use it. I got up on my hind legs and fell back on the column.

What happened next was the most painful moment of my life. What felt like a million needles tore through my hide and straight into the most painful regions of my body. I could feel the pain echoing through every partition of it, and the pain increased every second. My brain felt as though someone had filled it up with water and forgot to turn it off, as the pressure kept building. Suddenly, it was over, and I collapsed to the floor. The weight of the arms and the sudden fatigue brought on by the ordeal kept me pinned down to the concrete floor. I tried to get up using my hooves to push myself up, but found it impossible under the weight of the arms.

"Use the arms. They won't bite." The voice was really grating my nerves.

I decided, for once, to follow the advice and use the arms to move around. It was like I was a foal again, taking my first steps. It was incredibly difficult to even raise them a slight bit, never mind trying to move while using them.

In a few minutes, I was able to move the frontal left metallic appendage in a range of motion that I deemed adequate. I moved on to the other front arm and tried to move that. After another few agonizing minutes of experimentation, I got that one working, as well. Then I tried moving the two in tandem so that I could try and move around. The results were less than what I had hoped, and I tended to use more force than necessary (causing the floor to crack underneath), but it was enough to satisfy me for the time being.

I worked on the mechanics of the arms a bit more, and after who knows how long, I was able to move, albeit very slowly, with the four mechanical arms. It got easier to move around after a while, and at that point I trusted myself to not fall over using it.

"Took you long enough." The voice seemed bored. "Get to work. I'll come back soon enough." the speaker turned off, then just as quickly turned back on again. "Oh, yes, there are some... Additions I forgot to mention in deference to the arms, but you will figure them out soon enough. Ta ta!"

Left alone in the room, I contemplated whether I should actually work, or see what would happen if I stayed idle while looking like I was actually working. I decided to try the latter. I looked at the board, not really paying attention to the numbers, and instead thought about possible routes to escape the prison.

A massive jolt shook me out of my musings.

I looked around for any possible object that could have given me such a large electric shock. When I found none, I returned to my inner thoughts. Another jolt shook my body. This time I located where the shock came from. It was from the metallic vertebra on my back.

"I knew he set me up. He has a mechanism in here to force me to work..." I said out loud to myself, cementing the idea in my mind.

Not wanting another shock, I decided to try and Finish what my predecessor started. I looked up at the board and started to right a series of numbers. Something unexpected happened.

I could hear something from the inside of my mind. I stopped writing on the board and tried concentrating on the sound. It disappeared as soon as it started, so I continued to write calculations on the board. It started once more, and this time, I simply continued to work. The noise steadily grew louder, and I tried to listen to it while working.

The noise was a piece of classical music. I did not recognize it, but it was rather fast paced, and calming. In fact, the more I listened, the more I listened, the more I relaxed, and the easier it was to concentrate on the board in front of me.

I instantly halted my hoof, and the music steadily tuned itself out of my brain.

I reached a realization. The pony behind the voice was conditioning me to work on this project of his!

I picked up the piece of chalk and threw it against the wall. A sudden jolt of electricity dropped me to the floor, along with the arms which were supporting themselves from their own weight.

Frustrated, I went back to the piece of chalk and picked it up. I decided the best course of action was to simply work on the problem at hoof and work out the details later.

So I continued to work, the music drowned out my emotions, leaving nothing but the ability to focus at the task.

Several hours later, I found my head hitting the floor. My concentration interrupted, I lifted myself unconsciously using the prostheses in the process. With the music leaking out of my head, I noticed how tired I was. Why had I not noticed how tired I was before? In accordance with my sudden need to sleep, I used the arms to spider my way over to the room from which I had originally woken up in and sleep there.

I lowered myself into bed, and covered myself with the thin sheet that was supplied to me. I found it difficult though, seeing as thought after thought hit me. Some were related to the problems I had been working on, such as what would happen if I had switched this variable with this one? Or what if I were to square both sides? Other issues arose as well. Is vinyl okay? If he has her, then who else has that madpony taken? Who else has he or she forced to work?

With the turbulent thoughts swimming around in my mind, I eventually drifted off to sleep.

I did not dream that night. And I knew that I most likely would never dream a good dream again.

Comments

[0XIxIX0]

SO MUCH I. I really wish i could do something about it...

first person. my first shot at it. hope this works out okay...

Alright, i hate capitalization. DEAL WITH IT.