//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirty- Broken Chords // Story: Notes Of Time // by MLPxMaestro //------------------------------// Notes Of Time: Chapter 30- Broken Chords: A year had passed since Octave’s grandmother had passed, and Maestro had seemingly never been able to get over it. Despite all of the effort his wife and his daughter put into helping him out, it was just never enough. His heart was still broken, and if it kept being this way for too much longer…he could die of a broken heart. Octave was a teenager now, and still the sweet little filly she promised her dad she would always be. She was more obedient to her mother and father than ever before, due to the fact that her father always seemed to feel very sick emotionally most of the time now. He had been in a deep state of depression the first few months of the tragic loss, and then particles of it just seemed to linger within him, topped off with a sea of sadness. He had still continued working and being manager at his music shop, but it just wasn’t the same anymore, nothing ever was to him since his mother died. “Maestro please, you haven’t eaten in days?” Octavia spoke up to him concerned, watching him play with his food and not even take a nibble at his vegetable plate. “I’m not hungry.” He looked off, pushing the plate off towards the middle of the table, and catching glimpse of Octave staring back at him with food in her mouth. “Be uh…be daddy’s…little…g-” he then sighed deeply. “Never mind…I’m off to bed.” “Dad, I just got home from school, don’t you wanna know what I’ve been up to?” “Tell…me…l-” he couldn’t finish, and continued proceeding up the staircase, and closed the bedroom door. “Mom…I’m worried about him.” “I know sweetie, I know…and he has been acting this way for months. He has not been able to get over the loss of his mother, even despite my efforts to get your father some help with a psychologist.” “Didn’t the psychologist say he didn’t know what else to do?” Octave wondered. “That’s right…and that is the scary part…and that is never good news.” Octavia replied. A little while later, Octave made her way into the bed with her father, and snuggled up to him, as he loosely brought his foreleg around her in a sort of “I don’t really care either way” sort of action. “Dad, please be with your family, I’m worried about you. I don’t like seeing you so sad all the time.” Said Octave, nuzzling the side of his face but no positive result coming from it. He didn’t even bother to respond, and almost seemed to act like she didn’t even exist. “Dad?” she asked him, and yet still no answer for a second time. With that, she simply kissed his cheek, and looked back at him as she got off the bed. Making her way over to the bedroom’s entrance, she looks back at him before heading back downstairs to start on her homework. “I love you dad.” Octave then faced down towards the ground, and slowly made off with herself down the stairs thereafter. “Dad…loves…y-” he stopped himself again, feeling like the very speech and energy had been sucked out of him by his depression. The depression for him was unlike anything the doctors had ever seen from a pony that had experienced a broken heart as bad as it was to him. It was like an emotional vampire lived within his heart, and fed upon the blood of his positive emotions, which left him powerless and his mind greatly aloof for him to really do anything about it at all. Another week had passed, and Maestro’s health now began going into a good amount of decline. He was brought to a doctor and told that he needed to find a way to get over his depression, or he would die. Octave prayed in her bedroom every night before she went to bed for her father she cared for and loved too much for words to describe it. She wouldn’t know what to do if she had lost her father to his own heartbreak bringing his untimely demise, and yet at such a young age despite all of the rest of his life he still had ahead of him. She couldn’t even bare the thought of thinking about such a terrible loss; such as her father’s own death. The thought alone would keep her up for hours on end it seemed, and would even occasionally get in the way of her schoolwork, which would concern her teacher as far as how her personal life might have been a factor? Octave makes her way out after the school bell rings, and many colts and fillies rush out of the building’s double-doored entrance. She waited for Stardust to catch up to her, but noticed off into the distance galloping her way home. She didn’t understand why though? Only knew that something was not right with her best friend, since she couldn’t hang out at Stardust’s home anymore. She sighed lowering her head a bit, and made her way back home with her saddlebags. They contained her homework: a book and some worksheets on one side, and her notebook in the other. No need for bringing a pencil with her, since she had plenty of them stored away at home. She made her way through her front door with a quick turn of the lock, and swift twist of the doorknob. She placed her saddlebags down at the foot of the coat rack that was next to the front door, and noticed that her mother was taking it easy on the couch. “How was school dear?” Octavia asked in a kind tone. “It was good, but I still got homework. “Home work is not always bad you know?” said her mother. “I know…but still it’s dumb.” Octave replied. “Hey where’s dad?” “Oh he will not be back home until later on tonight. He said he thought the shop might need some changes made to it…have honestly no idea what he’s meaning by that. But why don’t you go over there and pay him a visit?” Octavia insisted, figuring that even though he seemed to not really care at all now on the outside, deep down inside, she thought he always enjoyed having his little girl spend time with him. “I don’t really know if that’s a good idea…plus it doesn’t really interest me anymore.” Octavia gasped at her response. “Octave, that is your father though?!” she spoke up shocked. “He’s not the same, he never has been for a really long time. I don’t feel the same either…” Octave then cuddles up against her mother, rubbing the side of her face against her mother’s neck. “Aww, I know sweetie I know. He isn’t the same, but I have still not given up on him just yet. I have one more thing I want to try, although it seems awfully farfetched.” Said Octavia. “What is it?” “If psychology cannot destroy that barrier, then I think divine help can get rid of it altogether.” Octave then looked back up at her with curiosity written all over her face. “Um…what?” “I will write a letter to the princess, and see if she might be able to help…and yes I am that desperate sweetie. Your father is in terrible shape, and he needs help immediately.” “But mom, doest he princess do that kind of stuff?” “Yes, she loves the citizens of Equestria, and she listens to them if they ever call on her aid. She may not be able to attend to all of their needs, but she certainly tries her best I am sure of that.” Octavia replied. “You need to start on that homework young lady, understood?” “Yes ma’am.” Octave then kissed her mother’s cheek ever so sweetly, and then got off the couch bringing her saddlebags up with her upstairs to her bedroom. “Don’t come out of that room until you have finished everything!” “Awwww! But whyyy?!” Octave wondered whining from her cracked bedroom door before she closed it. “Just do as you are told! Honor your father and mother!” her mother commanded to her from downstairs. Half and hour had passed since Octavia had heard anything from her daughter upstairs? She must have been studying and focusing on some interesting work. “Should I check on her?” she wondered. “Well…hm, I think she will be fine. It doesn’t seem like she needs my help on anything, or she would call out to me like she always has.” The house had been quiet for over an hour now, and Octavia had managed to finish writing the letter to the princess within that hour. She went outside to place the letter within the mailbox, and head back indoors to settle into her soft spot on the couch once more for the evening. “Octave sweetie, is everything alright up there?!” “Yes mom, I’m studying!” she replied back in a slightly muffled tone of her voice, as it passed through the floor and walls. “Maestro won’t be back until nine tonight, which is still a little under four hours away from now?” Octavia wondered to herself. “This is going to certainly be a long four hours then…let the fun begin.” She sarcastically thinks to herself. She then decides to grab some catalogs from a basket placed under one of the nightstands, and begins riding her boredom off with images of stylish clothing and so forth until he returns.