//------------------------------//
// Da Capo 
// Story: The Performance 
// by ScarletRibbon 
//------------------------------//

It was lunchtime, but Octavia was taking the opportunity to get some extra credit done. High school was rough.
"Octavia!"
Looking up from her homework, Octavia saw one of her classmates approach with some papers held aloft in her magic. "Yes?"
"Some unicorn brought this by and asked me to give this to you." The papers floated in front of Octavia and dropped to her desk. The pages were of poor quality, and fairly worn, but it was... sheet music? The top of the page boldly proclaimed "Untitled", which caused her to snort in mild amusement. And the composer was...
"What?" Octavia blurted in confusion. She flipped through the pages—a two-part piece for cello and violin—but there were no further clues. "Who did you say gave this to you?"
"I don't know," her classmate replied again. "I think she's from the class below us? White unicorn, blue hair, wears sunglasses?"
Octavia stood up, nodding. "Thank you." After exiting to the hallway, Octavia took off at a gallop, earning a quick rebuke from the hall monitor which she promptly respected just long enough to get out of sight and resume again.
She peeked in the doorway for the class below and looked around. A unicorn matching the description given was sitting quietly, alone in the corner, eating lunch. Now that she was here, she realized she didn't know exactly what to do. Should she be... mad? Flattered? Cheated? In truth, she just wanted to know why.
She approached the filly's desk. "Hello?" she called out softly, holding out the pages. "Did you write this?"
The filly's head snapped quickly to meet Octavia's gaze—or at least, that's what Octavia assumed, but couldn't see behind her shades. "Nope," she said calmly. "Got your attention, did it?"
Octavia hadn't expected such a brazen response. "Um, y-yes, I suppose it did." What exactly had she come here for again? Oh, right. "I guess I was wondering... why is my name on here?" Octavia placed the pages down next to the filly's lunchbox.
"Because you wrote it," the white filly replied. "I just transcribed it."
Confused, Octavia looked at the pages again, this time, paying closer attention to the actual music. "This... this is..." The pages dropped out of her hooves to the floor. "Y-you... you transcribed that?!"
The filly nodded. "Every single note. I can't guarantee it was perfect, but... I'm pretty good at it." Her horn lit up and the scattered pages reassembled themselves back onto the desk.
"Why did you do that—" Octavia very nearly shouted the filly's name, but then realized, "—err... I guess I don't know your name," she finished, slightly calmer.
"Name's Vinyl," the filly replied casually. "Vinyl Scratch." She reached up to her nose and removed her shades. Octavia's heart began to race again as she became instantly entranced by Vinyl's red eyes. "You were amazing, by the way, but I know a crush when I see one."
"A what?!" Octavia blurted.
"Nothing," Vinyl said, a half-cocked smile spreading across her face. "We can talk about that later. For now, we'll stick to your question: Why did I do it? Because it was an amazing performance. I fell completely in love with you." She gestured at her cutie mark—two eighth notes joined by a bar. "You got your cutie mark from playing it. I got mine from transcribing it."
"In love with me?" Octavia blurted, suddenly confused, before her strict upbringing kicked in and demanded a response. "And, uh... congratulations, I guess?"
"Thanks!" Vinyl smiled in a way that completely threw Octavia off again. "It was really important to me. Still is, really. I transcribed it for my mom, and she's the most important pony in the world to me."
Octavia paused. "You transcribed it for her?"
"Oh, yeah. She wasn't able to make it—she was in surgery during your performance, and I had nothing else to do. I sang it to her at first, but it was really obvious I couldn't truly replicate it on my own, cuz I can't sing chords. My mom used to be a music teacher, so I wrote it down. Took me three weeks."
"Wait a minute," Octavia interrupted. "It took you three weeks? I performed that four years ago."
Vinyl disarmed Octavia with her smile again. "Yeah, I've been meaning to give it to you, but... I didn't realize until afterward that it was... less than an ideal plan. See, my mom... she never regained her sight after that trip to the hospital. She never got to read it. But I don't need it anymore, so I want you to have it."
Octavia just stared at Vinyl, her jaw slack with confusion. "You seem really casual about this, but this sounds very heartbreaking for you."
"Well, it is, but I've processed it years ago," Vinyl said, rolling her eyes. "That sheet music... it's kinda special to me, y'know? Giving away the very pages that got me my cutie mark? It's all very personal. But I actually want you to have them. It's your cutie mark, too!"
That she was so willing to sacrifice something that meant so much to her made Octavia's heart jump, but it didn't sit right. Octavia's cutie mark didn't come from the sheet music, it had come from her heart. "Vinyl... I don't know what to say... I can't accept this."
"Nope, its purpose has been fulfilled," Vinyl said matter-of-factly. "My mom finally got to hear it performed by a professional duet the next year, and she loved it. And now, she and I are working on a really huge project, and we want your help to finish it."