//------------------------------// // New Friends // Story: Little Musicians // by Shadowmane PX-41 //------------------------------// Octavia and Vinyl took their seats in the classroom. Thanks to some string-pulling from their parents and foster-parents, the school had generously allowed them to sit next to each other in the middle of the class. As the other kids in the class filed in and sat down as well, the two of them felt like they weren't so alone anymore. Though they couldn't hold their hands because of how the desks were spaced out, both Vinyl and Octavia could both feel the bond between them was as strong as ever. The chatter from the other kids was brought to an end as Principal Cheerilee walked into the classroom. Her magenta hair was still as curly and bouncy as it always was. She had a clipboard in her hand; one that she placed down on the desk as she stood before it; looking out to the class, who all fell silent as they looked towards her. "Welcome back, class." Cheerilee started, addressing the class with a smile on her face. Teaching had always been one of her greatest passions, despite being the principal of Ponyville Elementary. It was one of the greatest joys that she got in life, to share knowledge with other kids and have them take that knowledge and make their lives better, as well as give them brighter futures for the years to come. "I hope you all had fun during recess. For now, though, it's time to get back to learning things." She took the clipboard again; seeing that it had the names of all of the students written down; names that were mostly plays on words; not that she minded. One by one, Cheerilee called out the names of the other students in the classroom. There was quite a few students to go through, with names such as Burn Rubber, Star Seeker, Golden Note, and Sweet Heart. Names that while they would have been laughed at or at least sniggered, were just met with the students reaching their arms into the air and calling that they were here. At last, Cheerilee came to Vinyl Scratch and Octavia, who also both raised their arms when prompted, lowering them after they called that they were here, starting with Vinyl and ending with Octavia. "Good. Everyone's here, so let's talk about one of my favourite subjects." Cheerilee started as she laid down the clipboard, took a piece of chalk, and wrote one word. A word that she said herself as she put the chalk down at last and stepped aside so that everyone could see it. "Unity." "Miss Cheerilee?" A student with green hair and pink skin raised her arm into the air. "What's a you-knee-tea?" Cherilee just giggled at the girl's explanation. "Unity, Lemon Zest. It means the bond between two or more people." And as she said that, Cherilee just started making some more chalk illustrations to get her point across. "A more common term for unity would be friendship. When you're friends with someone and they are friends back with you, the stuff that you do together can be called unity. It helps your bond grow because you do and feel things with them; things that you normally wouldn't feel when doing it alone." "Like what me and Tavi do!" Vinyl blurted out, raising her arm into the air. "We have all kinds of you-knee-tea together! And we have lots of actual tea too!" "Vinyl..." Octavia slunk back into her chair slightly. She wasn't used to Vinyl just saying things on her behalf. She was much more of a girl who liked to speak for herself; despite how young she was. Octavia could already hear the other kids giggling over the mispronunciation. "You could say that, yes." Cheerilee still kept on smiling as the other kids calmed down. "But unity isn't just related to just friendship. You could still have great unity with a group of people who aren't friends. Like a team of football players. Not all of them are as friendly with each other as they are with other people, but they still have a lot of unity because of how well they work as a team. Unity isn't just bound to friendship." She went on, drawing up some more illustrations of the concept of unity. "It also applies to other big groups as well. Dance troupes, people on a ship, men and women at work, they all have great unity with each other because of what they do and how much hard work they put in, and how that hard work benefits them and everyone else around them." As the lesson went on and on, Vinyl and Octavia thought about their unity; their bond. They had always been friends, even before Octavia's parents divorced and she found herself with only a mother and Vinyl's father to serve as her replacement father. Still, she was happy that of all the people that she could have been adopted in during such a trying time, that it was with Vinyl Scratch. By all accounts, given how different the two of them were, then there was no rhyme or reason that the two of them should have ever become friends, but they were still friends regardless; happy to be with each other no matter how different they were. With Vinyl's rugged, unhinged, free-spirit life, and Octavia's gentle, refined, almost lady-like personality, the fact that they were best friends proved that they didn't care how the world painted opposites out to be contrary to one another. They were still going to be friends no matter what happened and who they met. Eventually, when Cheerilee stopped presenting, the two girls were both given a sheet of paper and were asked what unity meant to them. Octavia's read, "Unity for me is the friendship that I have between myself and Vinyl Scratch. The two of us like different things and it's almost impossible for us to get to agree on the things that we like. But that's just how much it shows that we're friends despite the differences." Vinyl's reponse, on the other hand, was something along the lines of, "Unity's when you have two people or more having a blast with each other. Me and Tavi are two kids who just love each other to bits and the stuff we get up to is on a whole 'nother level! The fact that we can do all of these things together as friends just shows how strong that unity is too!" Both girls finished writing, then put their pencils down and waited for Cheerilee to take the papers back. As they did, the two girls looked around the classroom to see if there was anyone else that had a unity with each other. They could see that the desks were close to each other and they could see heads looking towards other kids, but there was nothing that the two of them could gleam. Vinyl Scratch in particular looked at Lemon Zest. Or rather at the back of Lemon Zest's head because she couldn't see her eyes. The way that she had just spoken like that reminded her of herself in places. She could tell that Lemon Zest was a fun-loving kid; even if it wasn't time for lunch or another recess period. Vinyl wanted to make Lemon her friend as soon as possible so that she could properly judge that for herself. Octavia, on the other hand, couldn't stop thinking about Sweet Heart. But was she really the only friend that she could have made in a place like this? Especially given that there were so many other kids around her? For everything that she, Sweet, and Vinyl had done in recess, Octavia thought for sure that there would have been other kids in this class or even this school that shared her love for music. Music was in particular one of her favourite subjects when it came to anything, really. Her cello served as an omen to how much she adored music. None of the other students showed anything from the offset that screamed 'I'm a music lover. Please be my friend, Octavia Melody!'. For now, Octavia had to judge purely on name, face, appearance, and personality alone. One long lesson later, the school bells rang once again, and the kids were dismissed for lunch. "Woo! Lunch time!" Vinyl giddily called as she jumped from her desk and threw her arms out to the side, very nearly slapping Octavia in the face with them. "C'mon, Tavi! Let's get some good grub!" "Vinyl, please, just wait a second..." Octavia tried to speak, but before she could even get a word in edgewise, Vinyl took her hand and dragged her out of the classroom; her feet almost lifting off of the ground as she had no choice but to run with Vinyl. Vinyl just threw her backpack on her back, stuffed Octavia's on her back, and went off with her out of the class, off down the corridors, and towards the lunch hall. All the while, Octavia had no choice but to follow on after her. At least her cello was safely stored in her locker so that she didn't have to worry about Vinyl or one of the others breaking it along the way. Still, once again, she found herself thrust into another one of Vinyl's on-a-whim runs. At least she knew where she was going this time. The Ponyville Elementary lunch hall was buzzing with activity. Students were lining up with trays to get the food of the day. All kinds of things from mashed potatoes to vegetables, with the odd bit of gravy here and there, all accompanied with silverware so that they could eat them without getting their hands dirty. As well as their food, each of the kids also had a drink, ranging from cartons of milk and juices, to little cups of water. Almost all of the tables were being taken by the kids. Some of them were fully filled, but others had empty chairs waiting to be filled. Most of them were with pairs of students who were friends, while others were with boys sitting with girls for reasons more than just because they were different genders. There was only one or two tables that were completely empty. Vinyl and Octavia's table was not one of those empty chairs. In the middle of the lunch hall, Vinyl and Octavia were sitting side-by-side together, both looking down at their lunch. Vinyl had decided to get more mash than vegetables, with only a few pieces of sweetcorn and peas sticking out of the white mush. She had a carton of apple juice sitting by her side, with a straw poking out of the top of it. As well as that, she had some small sausages dangling out of the mash; though she had stuffed them in there herself so that it looked more awesome. Octavia had been given more of the same, though her portion was much more civilised. She had separated the mash and the vegetables into different slots of her tray, with a cup of water sitting at her side. Octavia was much more into drinking water than juice, not because she didn't like it, but in case she needed to sing in places, she wanted to make sure that her throat was just as ready as the rest of her body was. Octavia was using her knife and fork, gently scooping vegetables up before sticking her fork into the mash, scooping that up as well. She brought the whole concoction to her mouth, chewed it up, and swallowed; smiling politely as all the mash and vegetables danced around her throat before landing in her belly. "Excuse me? Is this seat taken?" A familiar voice asked, pulling Vinyl and Octavia out of the moment. There ahead, the two kids could see her. With that magenta hair on her head and a tray in her arms, it was none other than Lemon Zest, who put her food down before the kids and parked herself on the stool, looking at Vinyl. "What am I saying? Of course it's not taken! We're all friends here, right?" "I... suppose so?" Octavia lifted a brow. She was just about to ask Lemon what she was doing here when another student followed after Lemon Zest and laid her tray down next to her. Unlike Lemon, she looked away from the girls, focusing more on her food than the rest of her company. She had shimmering azure hair fashioned like a wave of ocean water., with neon blue skin, yellow eyes, and a purple skirt on her. "Oh? Who are you?" "Me?" She asked, tilting her head at Octavia. "Uhm, well... my name's... Allegro. Allegro Waltz." "Allegro... Waltz?" Octavia asked, blinking as she looked at the new girl before her. "That's a very... interesting name for sure." "How so?" Allegro asked, blinking at Octavia. "Well, because of how Allegro and Waltz clash with each other." Octavia explained, putting her elbows down on the table. "Usually, the allegro is a rapid, brisk piece of music. Whereas the waltz is much more slow, dignified, and gentle by comparison. I would never think of putting the two together personally, but it's interesting how you have." "Oh, uh... th-thanks?" Allegro just tried to smile as she looked into Octavia's eyes. "No problem." Octavia chuckled as she never took her eyes off of Allegro. In the background, she could hear Vinyl Scratch and Lemon Zest talking much more about what they liked and what they were doing, but here and now, Octavia was much more focused on the chat between her and Allegro than she was with her sister. "So, do you like music, Allegro?" "I do. Yes." Allegro spoke softly, taking a bite of her mashed potatoes before swallowing. "My mommy and daddy play the harp and the piano. And I play the flute. It's a funny instrument, but I... I like it. It's small and long; like an arrow from all those archer movies and books." "Oh, I think it's more than just funny. I think it's rather beautiful as well." Octavia nodded. "The flute can really bring a special kind of charm to music. While the piano and the harp play their own tunes to a wonderful degree, the flute is what truly makes the music come alive if you're going for something more uplifting and jovial. Personally, I play the cello myself, and while I can't make anything as jolly-sounding as you can, I can at the very least try and bring some delight to the people listening to me." "You play the cello?" Allegro asked. "Wow... I wish I could play the cello..." "If you like, I could help you play it later today." Octavia offered, reaching a hand out for Allegro. Allegro looked at her hand and was hesitant to reach out for it, but she still couldn't tear herself away from it. "It'll be my treat. You don't have to worry about a thing, Allegro. Promise." "O-O-Okay..." Allegro slowly reached her hand out for Octavia's. Her hand was shaking and trembling as she brought it closer to Octavia's hand, but Octavia eventually took it herself, held it firmly, and shook it gently and delicately; a motion that made Allegro stare at Octavia with wide eyes. The handshake went on until at last, Allegro couldn't help but feel a small smile forming on her face. She could tell that with Octavia by her side, that she and her would be great friends. "No way... so you're really into music like me?" said Vinyl Scratch, on the other side of the conversation as she spoke to Lemon Zest. "What kinds? Dance music? Synth? Neo? Vaporwave? Maybe even sci-fi?" "I mean, those are all pretty sick-sounding types of music, but I like a bit of rock music myself." Lemon Zest nodded her head. "My favourite bands are all those really-screechy ones; the ones that make all kinds of noise that make others bang their heads up and down like this!" As she said it, Lemon Zest demonstrated by headbanging for Vinyl Scratch; a motion that just made Vinyl laugh. "You're funny!" Vinyl said as she was still giggling. "Thanks! Mommy and daddy always said that you should try and make other people laugh." Lemon stopped headbanging and held her hands together. "Do you like rock too?" "H-yeah! It's a little bit crazier than the kind of music that I'm into, but it's really fun too!" Vinyl Scratch nodded as she clasped her hands together; eyes that were full of twinkling stars. "You wanna be besties, Lemon?" She reached out for Lemon Zest's hand. "Eh, why not?" Lemon just smiled and threw her body over the table, grabbing hold of Vinyl's hand and shaking it vigorously; a gesture that made both of the energetic little music-lovers grin more as their handshake turned into a competition to see who could shake the other's hand the longest before they finally gave up. And so, there in the lunch hall of Ponyville Elementary did two new friendships begin to blossom. The friendship between Octavia Melody and Allegro Waltz; who both bonded over the gentler and peaceful orchestral music that they loved to hear and play, and the friendship of Vinyl Scratch and Lemon Zest; a pair of free-spirited little girls who loved fun, music, and fun music above all else. The four little musicians ate their lunches together, while talking about stuff that they really liked, as well as what they wanted to be when they grew up. The answers to their futures were all the same, but with different paths. Vinyl and Lemon wanted to become DJs, playing all the songs that they wanted to play, while Octavia wanted to be a professional cello player and play on stage just like her mother. Allegro, on the other hand just wanted to be a flutist; not caring about the rest of the details unless she was happy playing the flute. Regardless, they all knew that this was only just the beginning. The beginning of a wonderful new pair of friendships; friendships that they hoped would branch out to the other girls in the group; so that they weren't just friends with one person. Then, as the bell rang, the four kids all left the lunch hall together. Vinyl and Lemon holding each other's hands, and Allegro and Octavia holding each other's hands too. Lemon and Vinyl were talking among each other, while Octavia and Allegro were happy to just smile at each other as they walked, letting their body language do all of the talking for them...