With a final stroke of her bow, Octavia's cello sounded out it's last note in her solo, a signal for the rest of the orchestra to begin playing along with her. Ten minutes later, the symphony itself was finished allowing the crowded theater to erupt with applause. The grey earth pony mare stood and bowed with the rest of the musicians, but wasted no time in putting her instrument in its case and making a break for the door.
She just had to make it outside before—
“Oh Miss Melody!”
“Rats.” Octavia whispered through clenched teeth before putting on her best smile and turning around. Trotting towards her was a white unicorn mare with a blonde mane and tail, an equally fake smile matching Octavia's own expression.
“That solo of yours was simply divine, but I'm afraid it's just not good enough.” The mare said dramatically. “I needn't remind you that tomorrow night several members Canterlot's upper crust will be attending. I would hate for them to be disappointed in the orchestra because of a single earth pony's skill level was not up to par with the rest of us.”
Octavia's smiled strained slightly.
“Why, but of course.” She gritted her teeth. “I will be sure to spend extra time at practice tomorrow, if only to ensure that I am fully prepared for the performance.”
“Mmmm, see that you do.” The unicorn smirked, flipping her mane and walking away.
As soon as she was out of earshot, Octavia spat out a few choice words in her direction before turning once more towards the door. A brown unicorn with a blue mane stood nearby looking at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Ah!” Octavia jumped slightly. “Mr. Mint, I didn't see you there.”
“I know you didn't.” He smiled softly. “That is why you should be more careful with your words, you never know you is watching.”
Octavia's false smile fell and she looked at him pleadingly. “I am so sorry, I didn't mean what I said about unicorns!”
Mint chuckled and shook his head. “I know you didn't, Miss Songs can bring out the worst in anypony. She gives a bad name to unicorns.”
Octavia smiled in relief, but felt a pain in her heart. She knew it wasn't fair to judge all unicorns by just one bad character, but it didn't help that nearly all of the orchestra was made up of the more magically inclined ponies. Only a few non-unicorns had been able to succeed where so many others had failed, and it made many of the unicorn musicians bitter.
Not all of them were bad, Octavia had made friends with a few of them, Mint included. However, it had made those that associated with the lesser races social outcasts among the orchestra.
“Mint, I need to tell you something.” Octavia said, stepping closer to the stallion.
His ears perked up and his small smile grew a little. “Yes?”
“I really appreciate all that you have done for me, I probably wouldn't have made it this far if you hadn't stuck up for me, but. . .” Octavia bit her lip. “I fear that if you keep trying to help me out, it's going to hurt you in the end. Daybreaker knows, you're on thin ice already. I feel that unless you spend some more time with the unicorns, Mister Bags is going to find somepony else to fill in your position.”
Mint's ears drooped and he dropped his gaze. “I know, I overheard Miss Songs complaining about me yesterday. I don't care, I don't want to be part of that crowd anyways.”
Octavia's heart dropped and she walked up to him. “Mint, that really means a lot for me to hear, but I don't want you losing your job over this. Just make sure you're careful, please?”
The stallion met her gaze and his smile returned. “Okay, I will do this, but only because you asked me to.”
Octavia gave him a quick hug before saying good bye and quickly trotting out the doors, relieved to be outside away from the other musicians. Shielding her eyes for a moment to allow them to adjust for the bright sun, she set off towards her apartment a few blocks away.
She had just reached the first street corner when the sound of a loud engine caused her to look around before turning her gaze to the sky. Passing overhead was a large airship, trailing a thin column of smoke and steam. The thing looked rather shabby, it's brown, unpainted hull had several large spots of rot and patches, several ropes hung uselessly from the air bag above the ship and only one of the propellers was spinning, the other being covered in a ratty tarp. Behind it trailed two of Manehattan's Port Authority gunships, lazily following in it's path not as to intercept the ship but merely escorting it.
Octavia wrinkled her nose in disgust. Manehattan may not be as clean of a city as the capital, but this ship made even the slums look nice. And why was it a steam engine? Every other ship that Octavia had ever seen was power through magical crystals maintained by unicorns.
Watching the ship for a moment before it vanished over the top of another building, obviously heading for the docks, Octavia shook her head and banished the spectacle from her mind. The business for ships was not her business, so she paid the strange ship no more thought.
Her apartment was located only a few blocks from the theater, a small place that offered the basic comforts of home. Ordinarily, even this small place would have been a bit too pricey for Octavia given that her paycheck was substantially smaller than most due to the fact she was an earth pony, but there was no extra charge for a roommate. Thus a tenuous friendship had been born out of necessity.
“Ergh, Vinyl!” Octavia yelled at the door. “I told you not to block the door anymore!”
The door to the apartment would only open an inch before it hit what Octavia could only guess was a magical speaker hooked up to another one of her roommates contraptions.
With a sigh of frustration, Octavia reared back and slammed her shoulder into the door. The speaker gave way and toppled forward allowing the door to open far enough for her to squeeze inside and drag her cello in behind her.
“Vinyl!” She called. “Vinyl, where are you? We need to talk!”
There was no reply and a search of the apartment revealed that her roommate was not home.
“Ugh, Vinyl!”
The exasperated mare flopped onto the couch with a growl and reached inside her instrument case for a magazine. Octavia had lain there not five minutes reading before a familiar voice attracted her attention from the hallway.
“You got it dude!” Vinyl's scratchy voice said from the hallway.
Octavia quickly rolled onto her hooves and stomped to the door.
“Vinyl, do have any idea what time it is?”
Yanking open the door, the grey earth pony was surprised to see another pony standing out in the hallway with her roommate. The dark grey coat and a lighter grey mane was a bit of an odd color scheme, but what stopped Octavia cold were the eyes and ears of the pony next to her friend. The golden irises with slitted pupils looked at her in surprise as tufted ears swiveled back and forth. She couldn't see what the rest of the pony looked like due to the over-sized coat he was wearing, but Octavia could only guess at what it was hiding.
“Yo, Tavi, meet my new friend!” Vinyl exclaimed happily.
Octavia was at a bit of a loss for words.
The stallion seemed to notice this and used it as an opportunity to make a subtle exit.
“Thank you for your time, Miss Scratch.” He said, his accent only smoothing out his words. “It is always wonderful to see you.”
Turning to Octavia, he grinned allowing a pair of fangs to glint in the hallway. “And it was wonderful meeting you as well, Miss Melody.”
Octavia blinked twice and he was gone without a trace, her only clue that what she had witnessed was not a dream was Vinyl standing in the hallway looking at her with a confused expression.
“Uh, Tavi?” She said, waving a hoof in front of her. “You there? You know it was kind of rude of you not to say 'hi', you know?”
“Vinyl, who was that?” Octavia all but demanded.
“Mister Shadows, you remember?” Vinyl said dismissively. “You know, the guy I met in the club last month—HEY! What happened to my speaker?”
The white unicorn yelled out in anger upon pushing past Octavia and into the apartment only to find her damaged speaker face down on the floor.
“You left it in front of the door!” Octavia said defensively.
“Oh yeah.” Realization dawned on Vinyl's face. “Forgot that I left through the window.”
“The window?” Octavia asked. “What in Equestria possessed you to leave through the window?”
“Uh, that's where Mister Shadow made me leave through.” Vinyl chuckled. “Said he couldn't come in through the front door.”
“He what?”
“Yeah, I wasn't paying to much attention to what he was saying at the time. Do we have anything to eat?” The unicorn asked while walking into the kitchen.
Octavia chased after her. “Vinyl, are you dense? All of this is sounding highly suspicious! How can you be thinking of nothing but food right now?”
“I'm hungry!” Vinyl snapped, opening the fridge and levitating out a carrot. “Not my fault your concert ran so long!”
“My concert? You mean the two of you were attending my concert?”
“Yeah!” The unicorn explained through a mouthful of carrot. “Got to say Tavi, you sound pretty good on stage. I mean, I loved it but you should have seen Shadpone, poor guy could not take his eyes off you.”
Octavia shivered. The idea of that creepy. . . thing staring at her throughout her entire performance made her shudder.
“Wait a moment!” Octavia sputtered. “You hate attending of my concerts! You say they're boring, which they are not, but my point stands! Why did you suddenly attend this one with a complete stranger?”
“Iunno.” Vinyl shrugged.
“Oh for bucks sake!” The grey mare muttered. “Vinyl, I swear one of these days you will land me in an insane asylum or jail! At this point, I'm not sure which I would prefer!”
“Mmm?” Vinyl looked over to her friend, her mouth stuffed with food.
Octavia stomped towards the kitchen exit, intent on going to bed for the night when she tripped over one of Vinyl's speakers. Why it was in the kitchen, the grey mare would never find out. She forgot to ask about it when her muzzle met the ground.
“Oof!”
Vinyl was by her side in an instant, holding the mare in her forelegs and using her magic to stop Octavia's bleeding.
“Tavi, omygosh, are you okay?”
“I dink so.” Octavia answered with a hoof holding her injured nose and tears beginning to well up in her eyes. “Ish it bad?”
She saw Vinyl wince when she pulled her hoof away.
“No, no, it's not too bad!” The unicorn said unconvincingly.
“Oooooh no!” Octavia groaned. “I've go' 'oo pway tomo'wo nigh'! I canw pway wif my nose aw swo'wen!”
“Don't worry Tavi!” Vinyl sputtered. “I can fix this! Just let me—”
“You've done enuff awready!” Octavia roughly pushed the other mare away from her, causing Vinyl's head to bump against the counter.
“Jus' weave me awone!” She yelled angrily as she slammed the door to her bedroom.
Vinyl rubbed the sore spot on the back of her head while staring at the bedroom door.
“Tavi, I'm sorry!” She called pleadingly to the closed door. “I—It was an accident! Please don't be mad!”
Vinyl walked up to the door and tried the handle. It was locked, and although Vinyl could have easily unlocked it with her magic, she decided that Octavia did not need her messing things up anymore than she had already.
Turning around, she saw that Octavia's cello case was laid out casually by the couch. Gently lifting the instrument in her magic, she set her roommate's treasured belonging upright in the corner. When she did, a hastily stuffed magazine fell out of an open pocket, attracting Vinyl's attention.
Levitating the colorful paper up so she could read, the unicorn was stunned to see that it was a magazine for real estate with several pages marked. Inside the marked pages were advertisements for cheap, single room condos a little farther to the country, perfect for a single mare to get away from the city.
Vinyl let the magazine fall to the floor and look at Octavia's bedroom door, realization dawning on her features.
“Octavia?” She called, her voice catching slightly. “Please come out.”
She knocked on the door and called again.
Octavia either didn't hear her or refused to answer. With no explanation to satisfy her rising panic, Vinyl left her roommate alone and ran out the door, leaving behind a few tears on her way out.