A deep tone from the ships whistle announced to the passengers that their destination was fast approaching. Several of them had come out onto the promenade deck to witness the final moments of the voyage. The shipping lane for approaching the port at Canterlot took the ship at a low height over the top of the city, before turning sharply and sailing back on itself to come into the port facing the right direction. Octavia was also one of the passengers on deck, leaning over the railings in her large green floppy hat looking down on the tiny figures in the streets below, thankful that she was to far away from them for them to make out her appearance. As much as she had enjoyed fulfilling her musical career, the popularity she had gained frustrated her at times. The attention she received from fans of her music she could deal with, it was the attention from the press that got to her the most. She felt as if they were stalking her and took every free moment she had away from them for granted. The stories that had been printed recently had almost driven her to the edge of insanity. All she done was had one drink at a bar to calm her nerves before her latest concert, and now the press seemed to making out that she was an alcoholic. This wasn’t the life she’d wanted, hiding behind oversized sun hats and always on the move, she’d wanted a simple life with her music, maybe with a thatched cottage somewhere with a roaring log fire and just the sweet sounds of her Cello filling the room. She was prepared to give anything to have that sort of life.
“I didn’t expect to find you out here so early” a voice said from besides her.
Octavia turned her head left to find her travelling companion besides her, Doctor Whooves. What Whooves lacked in his musical talent he made up for in his sense of geography, history and companionship. She smiled at him “I just wanted to witness my final moments of peace before we land. Even if we did book tickets on a ship that arrived at seven o’ clock in the morning, no doubt there will be somepony from the press wanting to interview me about the Symphony Hall”
“Well, it’s a big thing” Whooves rested his front hooves on the railings of the ship and joined her in looking down on the streets below “The new Canterlot Symphony Hall has just been completed after five years of construction. Considering that you would have perished in the building if I hadn’t dragged your unconscious body out, it’s not surprising that the press are trying to find out what your expectations for it are”
Octavia remained silent, looking down.
“Sorry” Whooves said, noticing the sadness in her eyes “I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories”
“No, it’s ok” Octavia sighed, flicking her long black hair behind her head “It wasn’t all bad. If it wasn’t for that fire I wouldn’t have met you” She leaned on Whooves “And neither of us would have this life we live together”
Slowly, the great ship began to descend down to the port of Canterlot.
Vinyl carefully shut the drain cover behind her and readjusted her black cloak and hood before setting off down the street. The pain in her stomach told her that she desperately needed something to eat, but having lived in the sewers for five years she knew that such a luxury was hard to come by on the deserted streets of Canterlot, and if it did ever come by it was hardly ever enough to satisfy her hunger. There were the occasional nights when soup kitchens and charity dinners were organised for the homeless, but even then she chose to wait till long after they had finished and raid the waste bins for any available scraps that were clean enough to eat. Her reputation had been shattered long ago, if she was to turn up publicly to such an event she was sure she would be arrested, she couldn’t risk it. It was far easier to live in the shadows and remain a mystery.
Turning down one of the narrow alleyways behind a tavern, she heaved back the lid of the first dustbin she came across. All that she came across that was to her interests was the previous day’s copy of the Canterlot Herald, slightly stained, but still readable in most places. She put back the lid and sat on top of it on her haunches, flicking the paper open to see if there was anything of interest inside of it. It was still early in the morning so she didn’t have any fear of anyone disturbing her. After a short while though she became aware of somepony walking towards her and reached up, pulling the front of her hood down, making sure most of her face was hidden from this newcomer.
“I’d be moving along if I was you” He said.
Vinyl could tell from his gruff voice that he was obviously used to a life living on the streets. She spoke without even looking at him “Why should I, it’s not as if I'm offending anyone”
No sooner had she finished saying that Vinyl felt the stallions hoof shoot out and grab her by the throat, pulling her off the bin and pinning her against the wall, but thankfully for her her eyes were still covered by her hood.
The stallion spoke in anger through clenched teeth “Because this is my turf, and I don’t want to share it with anyone else!”
“Y-You’ve no idea who I am, do you?” Vinyl gasped, trying to tug away his hoof with her own.
“Why?” spat the stallion “Should I?”
Vinyl threw her hood back and revealed her face to the stallion, her deep magenta eyes staring straight through him. Thinking this would be a major deterrent for her enemy Vinyl was caught completely off guard as she felt a mighty punch strike her face and knock her to the floor. She blacked out.
Octavia and Whooves had both been surprised to find one of the cafes opened at a surprisingly early time in Canterlot. Securing themselves a table out in front of the building they slowly drank their tea together as they witnessed the sun rise up and the town wake with it. All the time Octavia seemed to be looking over her shoulder, as if she was expecting somepony to be there.
“Relax Octavia” Whooves said, raising his cup “It’s early in the morning, you can take off that hat of yours, it’s not as if there’s anypony around at this time who could bother you to much”
“yes, but if I do take it off no doubt the press will be all over us as soon as they know that I’m here, trying to make out that us drinking tea at this café is both of us practising playing ‘happy families’” she raised her hooves and made imitation quotation marks in the air, emphasising her disgust “What they think goes on behind closed doors of certain ponies homes astounds me sometimes!”
“Well, if that’s what they want to think, then let them think it” Whooves swirled the tea leaves in his cup before gulping them down “It’s not as if they have any hard evidence that could prove it”
“But that’s just it Whooves, they don’t need it. The name ‘Canterlot Herald’ is enough to convince anypony these days!” She gave a deep sigh then returned to her drink before continuing.
Whooves extended a hoof and patted Octavia’s hoof on the table “Don’t worry, some other story will come up and they’ll loose all interest in you”
Snap! A photographer on the other side of the square caught a photograph of both of them just as Whooves rested his hoof on Octavia’s. Not doubting that he would get good money for such an image, he disappeared into the down the narrow alleyway he had come from and back to the head office of the Canterlot Herald.
A throbbing pain filled Vinyl’s head as slowly she began to come round. Waking up on the floor of the cobbled alleyway confused her and she pulled her hood over her eyes as she replayed what she could remember in her mind before she blacked out. The dustbin, the newspaper, the stallion… ah, yes, the stallion. The pain of her fresh injures began to intensify as steadying herself with the wall, she dragged herself upright. Looking about she suddenly realised how late in the morning it was, the sun of Celestia was already raised high into the sky lighting up everything it could. She rubbed her aching temples as the nearby clock tower struck the hour. Nine o’ clock. Vinyl’s eyes bulged in their sockets. In all the years she’d been living down in the sewers she’d never dared to stay above ground for this long into the morning, she had to return down below, quickly. Noticing a nearby drain cover she gave a great heave. A sickening clang of metal against metal told her it was locked. Realising that a cloaked figure checking all the drain covers one by one would raise to much suspicion if she was spotted, she carefully thought out where the nearest cover would be that she knew would always be open. Vinyl clapped her hooves together as the location came to her, behind the Café in the town square. She made sure her hood was pulled down over her head as much as it would go and her body was covered with her cape as much as it could be, she knew she’d only get one chance at making it there. Vinyl broke out into a run as she shot out from the alleyway. She didn’t even want to contemplate what would happen if she didn’t make it back there.
“But going back to what you said earlier, I suppose your right Whooves” Octavia pushed her empty cup to the centre of the table “The sooner I stop hiding behind these wide brimmed hats will probably be for the better. Let’s go to the house, I’ll drop off this hat, and then maybe we can actually enjoy ourselves before the concert in a few days time”
They both stood up from the table and turned down now busy the street to leave. But as Octavia turned she felt something large collide with her and fall to the floor, knocking her hat off her head as it did so. Taking a few seconds to recover Octavia looked down on the pony she’d just knocked over, seeing their faded white fur laying back on the thick black cloak they were wearing. Octavia’s hat had landed on their face when they fell, hiding it from view.
Octavia leaned down and gently shook the pony with her hoof “Hello? Are you ok?”
The white front hooves of the pony reached up and pressed Octavia’s hat to its face “Don’t look at me!” she screamed.
The figure briefly peeled away part of the hat from her face revealing a large magenta eye to both Octavia and Whooves, before quickly masking it behind the hat again when she realised they were both still there. She got up rather unsteadily off of the ground and disappeared into the small crowd that had gathered around them. Both Octavia and Whooves stared at eachother in disbelief, but Octavia began to think more about the pony she’d just encountered. Those piercing magenta eyes seemed all too familiar to her.
“It couldn’t be, could it?” she thought to herself.
Noticing a few reporters trotting towards them from down the street both Octavia and Whooves walked away from the café in the opposite direction.
Vinyl slammed the drain cover shut and immediately laid down on the floor of the sewer, panting and gasping for breath, had she really just seen who she thought she had? Was Octavia really back here in Canterlot? She was still clinging onto the green floppy hat and frantically flipped it over, looking at the inside brim. Her suspicions were confirmed by a small label sewn into the hat, a small label that simply read ‘Octavia’ with a purple treble clef next to it. The simple piece of clothing now felt like a holy grail in Vinyl’s hooves. It felt almost like a passport that enabled her the right to be amongst the ponies in the world on top. She knew she just had to meet Octavia again, but how to do it when the world was against her? The thought suddenly came to her. A disguise! A mask! That way she would be able to move freely amongst the Canterlot Civilians. Pulling own her hood and placing Octavia’s hat on her head, she slowly trotted off into the darkness and towards her chamber. Although she knew the risks involved, she decided that now she would finish what she intended to achieve five years ago, she would confess her love to Octavia. Nothing could possibly stop her this time.
“But I’m telling you Whooves, those eyes, that face. I’ve seen them somewhere before, I just can’t think where”
“I’m sure there’s some reasonable explanation Octavia. Forget about it. It was just a common beggar pony, you see them everywhere, maybe that’s where you’ve seen that face before” Whooves pressed the doorbell to the tall terrace house once more, admiring the neat, curved hand writing in the nametag above it, ‘L. Heartstrings & Bon Bon’.
“Do you reckon he’ll still recognise us?” Octavia asked.
“Of course he will, he’d recognise you anywhere!”
Both of them could hear a fumbling at the doorknob on the other side of the door and with a faint click, it unlocked and began to slowly swing backwards, inch by inch. A tiny light grey colt with short untidy black hair struggled to open the door. His coat had a slight tinge of brown to it and he’d had to stand right up on his hind legs and stretch out his front hooves in order to reach the door handle. His face lit up when he saw the two of them stood out on the doorstep.
“Mother!” he almost squeaked as he ran out the door and straight into Octavia’s front hooves, giving her a great big hug, clinging tightly to her.
Octavia hugged her son in return, before lifting his head to look at her “Treble, aren’t you forgetting someone?”
The tiny colt looked across at Whooves “Father!” he ran across and they hugged each other, sharing a brief moment together.
“Hello Treble” Whooves smiled as he ruffled his hair.
“Have you had a nice time staying at Aunt Lyra an Bon Bon’s?” Octavia asked.
Treble nodded “It’s been great!” He almost squeaked again, bouncing up and down as he did so “They’re waiting for you both inside” he turned around and almost galloped back into the house.
Whooves turned to Octavia “See, I told you he’d remember you. And since he came to you first that further more backs up my theory that he’s a ‘mummy’s’ boy” He grinned at Octavia.
Octavia said nothing, but just gave Whooves a playful shove as she carried her small luggage case into the house.