21. The Corner Cornet
“Hmm, The Corner Cornet. Never been here before. Seen it from the street a few times though,” Granita idly mentioned as she read the wooden sign before opening the front door. A bell chimed from above as she held the door open for the foals. Silver walked right in, but Melody stopped to look at the store’s exterior for a moment longer.
The small building was located in the market square, like most stores in town save for a few odd ball ones here and there. As the name implied, it was on the corner of the street, cozily nestled in between a cafe with alfresco dining on one side and a barber shop complete with the old timey red and while spinning pole on the other.
The Corner Cornet's exterior consisted of plaster exterior walls with wood trim everywhere, topped off with a straw roof. The walls were painted a deep shade of blue, similar to zaffre, causing them to shimmer in the midday sun, drawing in one’s eyes to the large window displays. Needless to say, it was a stark contrast to most of the neutral off-whites that adorned the outside walls of the majority of stores in town.
Melody stopped as she stepped inside. There was a upbeat, melodious tune coming from the back of the store which sounded like it was coming from a viola. The store’s interior was deceptively large, much more so than the small facade on the outside made it out to be. Instruments of all kinds lined the deep cherry red walls; woodwinds, strings, brasses with several sets of percussion instruments set up on raised polished black pedestals with overhead lights shining down on them, causing the polished metal to shine and twinkle as her eyes moved across the room.
“This place looks amazing!” Melody gleefully chirped, eyes wide as she took it all in. Her natural affinity for stringed instruments had her gravitating towards them almost immediately, leaving Granita standing just past the doorway by herself.
“Looks expensive if’n ya ask me,” Granita muttered, walking deeper into the musical showroom, careful not to bump into anything. “So don’t touch anything, either of ya,” she threatened, glancing at Silver as she knew Melody was well enough behaved and would listen.
Silver stopped, his hoof midway to a guitar already as he pouted and turned his head back to Granita. “But I want to try this one out,” he lightly whined, glancing back to the glossy red and black six string.
“Ya got the bits ta buy it?” Granita questioned, raising an eyebrow.
“Well… err, maybe?” Silver quickly looked at the price, frowning. “No...”
“Then ya can look, but don’t touch. Yer parents would not be pleased if ya went an’ damaged something. They’d tan yer hide if they had to pay fer it.”
“Awww, alright…” Silver huffed and went back to perusing the guitars and their accessories. He really wanted to try out a few of them, but being grounded again for a month or more just wasn’t worth the risk.
Granita glanced over to Melody, checking on her and smiled as the filly nodded back in acknowledgement, with none of the fuss that Silver had given, just as she had come to expect from the youngster.
Slowly walking along the row of carefully showcased violins and violas, Melody was amazed to see that almost all the instruments were nearly identical to the ones back home. But, like most things here, there seemed to be an eerily similar counterpart to what she was used to. They might not be perfect counterparts as there was always something missing or added here or there, but it was enough to give her that eery sensation from time to time, leading her to think that this place and Earth had interacted in some shape or form before.
After looking over a few of the fancier violins that caught her eye, she grinned and eagerly trotted down to the end of the aisle. There sat two cellos, one extremely expensive looking one inside a glass protective case, along with a single double bass. This was exactly what she was looking for, though, her smile turned to a neutral expression as she tilted her head back, blinking at the sheer height of the very large musical devices that towered over her.
Her tail flicked from side to side in an agitated manner as she stared at her partly scowling reflection in the glass around the cello as she contemplated what to do about this annoying predicament.
Seriously?! How in the world am I supposed to play something like that in a body like this? Unless… I wonder if they have any one-tenth sized ones here. Probably not. She let out a light, but frustrated snort as she thought back to when she was young and had to use one of those tiny cellos.
The melodious music from the back of the store abruptly stopped, pulling Melody away from her thoughts. Moments later, approaching hoofsteps and the sound a door opening could be heard.
“Oh my!” a stallion’s voice said “I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t hear you come in.”
Melody turned her head, glancing around a rack of woodwinds, to see a spindly looking unicorn stallion trotting over to meet Granita. His coat was a shiny brown and his sleek mane and tail bore the color of an avocado. If he would have been rounder, he would have reminded her of a potato. Her eyes moved down to his flank. On it was black double eighth notes, one slightly higher that the other. “I’ll never understand those marks…” she muttered, shaking her head at the thought.
“Welcome to The Corner Cornet,” the salespony cheerfully stated with a smile. “I’m Ochre Note. How can I help you today ma’am?”
“Why ‘ello there Mr. Note. Nice place ya got here, but we’re just lookin’ fer now.”
“We…?” He blinked, eyes glancing around the store for a moment, stopping as they met with the eyes of a young filly. “Ahh! I see. You are here to find your beautiful daughter the perfect instrument for her to learn then?”
Granita’s green cheeks turned slightly red at that remark as she glanced over to Melody. “Thank ya kindly, Mr. Note, but no, she ain’t my daughter, just a family friend. But, like Ah said, we are just looking around today. Melody wanted to come see what y’all had.”
Note politely nodded and smiled, his thoughts interrupted as movement from the other side of the store caught his attention. “Ah, I see. This young colt with you as well?” he asked with a chuckle, glancing over to Silver.
“Sure is- Silver! What did Ah say about touchin’ things?”
Silver stopped midway through taking down a guitar from the wall, eyes wide as he was just caught with his hoof in the proverbial cookie jar. Melody giggled quietly at Silver’s failed attempt, putting a hoof in front of her mouth. “I just wanted to try it out. Not like I am going to hurt it or anything…” he replied only to get a stink eye from Granita. With a reluctant sigh, he carefully put it back on the wall. “Stupid adults and their stupid rules,” he muttered under his breath.
“Anyways,” Note said, drawing the word out as he glanced back over to Melody with a warm smile, walking over to her. “I see you have a good eye, miss. I take it you’re interested in cellos?” he happily asked, pointing with his muzzle to the cello that he had seen her eyeing up. “That one there was made by the great master Coltonio Hoofavari himself! It’s one of my most valued and prized instruments in my collection!” he proudly stated, grinning ear to ear as he gently rubbed the protective glass case.
So that’s why it’s in a glass case like that, though, I still have a hard time believing that this place has so many instruments so close to what we have back home. She lightly snorted, wrinkling her nose as she thought to herself, giving the stallion a smile. “I am, Mr. Note,” she replied, glancing back to the Hoofavari as it was called. “Though I doubt I will ever get to play something as wonderful as this… umm, what was it called again?”
“A Hoofavari,” Note replied with a small smile as he cocked his head ever so slightly to the left upon hearing her foreign accent.
“No… I meant, what was the name of the instrument again?” Melody asked but felt slightly embarrassed having to ask something so mundane.
Note’s right ear twitched as he stared down at the young filly, giving her a disbelieving look. “A cello,” he dryly stated.
“Chell-ohh,” she parroted, smiling at him. “Cello. Thanks, never heard them called that before.”
“Never heard…” He gave her a funny look. “What did you you call them then?” he curiously asked.
“We called them ~cellos~,” she said, her last word coming out in the English tongue that made Note visible cringe, something that she was used to by now. She had no idea why ponies looked physically hurt when she spoke in her native tongue, but by this point she didn’t care anymore and just rolled with it. “I used to play them, but… they were a lot smaller back home.”
“Smaller? Oh, you probably had a foal’s sized one,” he said with a hum as he glanced to the back of the shop where he had come from. “You know, I might just have one of those in the back. Hold on, I’ll go check,” he stated, trotting off out of sight before Granita or Melody could say anything to stop him.
Granita chuckled at Note’s enthusiasm, shaking her head, hoping that he remembered what she had told him about not buying anything. Twice. Walking over to Melody, she placed a hoof on her withers and smiled. “Just remember squirt, we only got ten bits now. Ah doubt we’ll be able to afford it right now, so don’t go getting yer hopes up, okay?” she softly said.
Melody nodded, though she did look slightly disappointed. “I know,” she replied with a small sigh, giving her a small smile as she gazed into her eyes before glancing down to the floor. “It would just be nice to play again is all. I miss it.”
Letting out a quiet sigh, Grantia felt her heart melt. It was painful to see Melody like this. The little filly had been through a lot over these last few months, and, if the roles had been reversed, Granita didn't think she would be coping anywhere near as well as Melody has been. “Hearth’s Warming is coming up, you know,” she hinted with a grin, softly stroking Melody’s back. In a way, that made her sad to say. For Melody to be here, missing her friends and family, for so long… It wasn’t right. “We’ll get ya a cello one ways’r anothers if that is what ya really want. Ah promise.”
Melody reared up on her hind legs, wrapping her hooves around the older mare as she nuzzled her cheek into Granita’s chest. “Thank you,” she whispered as she felt her heart warm.
Fondly hugging her back, Granita smiled. She was glad to ease even a tiny bit of pain that Melody had, and she knew getting her a cello wasn’t much but would do anything within her power to help her feel more at home while she was here.
“Ahem,” Note feigned a cough into his hoof, holding a small, rather well used stringed instrument in his magical as he smiled at the scene before him.
It seemed Granita and Melody had lost track of time embracing one another. Melody blushed as she was caught sharing affection with Granita. Not that she didn’t like being comforted, but being caught by somepony who was basically a complete stranger caused a few unsettling butterflies in her stomach.
They separated from each other as Granita giggled. She couldn’t help herself with how cute Melody looked. Her rosy red cheeks and those small ears laying down, almost hiding themselves in her dark grey mane mane.
“What’cha got there?” Granita asked, moving her gaze over to the floating wooden instrument. Melody followed suit, eyes going wide as she saw what Note had.
“It’s a smaller ~cello~,” she abruptly exclaimed, eyes twinkling as they roamed over every inch of the small instrument that they could see.
Note’s ear flicked at that word again as her floated the cello down to her. “Cello,” he said, correcting her. “This is my cello from when I was a but a young colt, just learning how to play. It’s a one-sixth size, but I think you could manage to play it,” he smirked, “if we got you a stool.”
Melody sat back on her haunches, her front hooves holding the small cello upright in her hooves. He was right, it was still taller than she was by a good foot and there was no way she could play this properly. That’s when his words hit her. “A stool? To stand on? While I play?!” she asked in a questioning tone a she glanced up to him.
He nodded with a warm smile. “Yes, yes, and yes.”
She thought about that for a moment, pondering how that was going to work without her falling over many, many time in the process. She couldn’t think of any instances outside of having a harness on or having someone else hold her up.
Silver laughed upon hearing that, the sharp sound caused Melody to just about jump out of her skin as he seemed to have appeared almost directly behind her without her knowing.
“Silver!” she hissed at him, most of her fur standing on end as she grasped firmly onto the cello, having almost dropped it a second ago. “Don’t do that!”
He grinned at her, a playful look on his face. “Do what? I didn’t do anything, but I do think it’s hilarious that you have to use a stool to play your cello,” he quipped, a shit-eating grin on his face as he mocked her by standing up on his hindlegs, pretending to play before dramatically falling over. Granita and Note couldn't help but to silently chuckle.
“Not. Funny,” Melody replied. Her snout scrunched up in anger as she glared at him for a moment before deciding it was best to just ignore him for the time being, though she really wanted to kick him right now. But, there were other things to worry about. Much better things. Turning back to Note, she took a calming breath, composing herself. “So, this, chel-low, it was yours, and you are giving it to me?” she inquisitively asked, raising an eyebrow and cocking her head ever so slightly.
“That’s correct. Well, the first part anyways.” Melody’s heart sunk a little hearing that. “I will not be giving you my beloved cello to keep as your own,” he responded with a straight face, one devoid of any emotions. “What I will do, is to let you borrow it with the promise that you will return it safely to me when you are done with it, or I ask for it back,” he said with a warm smile. The look of unadulterated joy on Melody’s face was worth it the risk of lending his personal cello out. “Now then, before I see you leave, I do believe that you mentioning that you know how to play, correct?”
Melody was so excited that she was going to get to have her very own cello again, she was almost shaking in her little hooves. “Y-yes. I know how to play!” she quickly replied, a wide grin on her face. Granita laid a hoof on her back, smiling encouragingly down at her.
“Then follow me and show us what you got then, little missy!” He chuckled, taking a step backward while turning towards the door in the back of the shop. “I have a practice area back here. It’s where I teach and where a few of my friends come by for jam sessions. Oh, and let me get that for you.” His magic lit up and surrounded the cello, floating it behind him as he headed for his practice area.
Glancing up to Granita, Melody looked almost shell shocked. She couldn’t believe this was actually happening. This shopkeep, this stranger, had just given her permission to take home his personal cello. Her. A young filly. Never in a million years would she had given up such a thing to a young child, especially one she only knew for all of five minutes. It was just unheard of generosity! What… What did he just say? “Y-you want me to... p-play?”
Note turned around to look at Melody. There was a very noticeable look of hesitance on her face, almost as if she looked scared to play. Maybe she just wasn’t used to playing in front of others? “Well, yes? I don’t really care how well you play, I just want to make sure you know how to properly handle a cello. Wouldn’t want to give my cello to somepony who is going to beat it up anymore than it already is. That’s all.” A soft smile danced across his face, his features relaxed as he tried to push through whatever it is that was holding Melody back. After all, he loved spreading and sharing the gift of music with others and if this filly had talent, he wanted it to be the one to help it blossom.
That makes sense I guess… “O-oh. Okay.” Stupid logic. How am I supposed to play like this?! How do you even hold down strings and properly grab a bow with hooves?! Bigger objects she understood how it worked, just barely. But, something small and precise as this was beyond her comprehension.
“Yeah, Melody. You kept going on and on about being able to play today. I wanna hear it!” Silver said, a grin on his face as he nudged her shoulder, pulling her out of her mini internal freak-out.
Not helping, Silver. Melody scrunched her nose, glancing to Granita who smiled at her, nodding her head in the direction of the backroom. They’re all against me. Every one of them...
“Don’t ya be frettin’ none,” Granita said with a comforting look and a warm smile as she patted Melody’s shoulder. “We don’t care how good ya are as long as ya enjoy playing. That’s all that matters ta me.”
Melody gave her a quick half-smile and nodded to Note, looking slightly more confident than a moment ago. “Alright, but I’m not that good.” Probably downright awful with these hooves. “I haven’t played in awhile,” she quickly amended, already doing damage control.
Note kept that same, comforting smile on his face as he waved a hoof to follow and started walking to the practice room in the back. “Like we said, Melody. We don’t care how good you are at playing, that is not what matters. I want to see how you play, not how well you play” he cryptically said, a happy, upbeat hum left his lips as they all followed him out of the showroom and into the practice room.
The room itself was surprisingly large, almost as large as the showroom. An earthy scent hung heavily the air, reminding Melody of some of the more run down bars that Gennie like to drag her to from time to time. Occupying most of the room were several rows of wooden chairs, simplistic in design and all facing a small wooden stage at the far end of the room. The chairs had pillows of varying faded colors laced around the bottoms. No doubt they were old and had seen better days, also a lot of pony posteriors. The rows of chairs sat upon slightly dirty wooden floorboards that creaked as they walked towards the stage. The wooden walls surrounding them had been painted a rich, dark brown and jutted out at odd angles, evenly spaced out along the sides of the room, hiding candles behind them that provided a soft and subtle mood lighting. This arrangement stopped the direct light from reaching the stage.
The centerpiece of the entire room was, of course, the stage itself. It wasn’t large, nor was it as impressive compared to what Melody was used to. It didn’t even have a curtain, nor did it seem to have a backstage, but it was a decent enough for what its intended purpose was, as Note said, it was a practice area. A single set of stairs made its way up the left side, only a few steps high, leading to the stage area itself. From what she could see, there was only enough room for four, maybe five, ponies at a time.
Despite its looks and smell, it was kinda nice. It made Melody slightly envious that she didn't have her own personal stage and seating for friends and family. “I kinda like it back here,” she idly mentioned.
Note chuckled as he reached the top of the steps, floating over a small stool from the back of the dimly lit stage, placing it front and center. “I do too. My personal practice area. My safe haven, if you will. Sorry for the mess though, I haven’t had time to properly clean since our last practice. It got a little rowdy to say the least.” He chuckled and faced her. “If you are ready my dear, please come up here with me. And, you two can take a seat if you so desire.” He gestured to the front row of seats.
Melody glanced back, watching as Granita and Silver took a seat in the front row. Her hooves suddenly felt like they were encased in blocks of lead as she swallowed hard, glancing back up to the stage where Note stood, waiting patiently for her, but thankfully not rushing her in the slightest. He just stood there with that same warm smile from before. Something about it connected with her. She had seen that same comforting look before, telling her that everything would be alright.
Her hesitance didn’t last too long as confidence began to fill her mind. This took her back, back to when she had first stepped up on a stage to play in front of an audience. Of course her parents were there for for her, and it was her father that bore that same, caring smile on his face, just as this stallion currently was. Melody stopped when she was next to him, nervously smiling back down to Silver and Granita. Silver had started to make funny faces at her while Granita had a pleasant look on her face as she gave her an encouraging nod, elbowing Silver to knock it off.
Note’s hoof tapped the stool gaining her attention. “Go ahead and hop up here and stand on your hind legs. Do you think you can do that, or do you need assistance?”
“I think I got it.” With that, Melody hopped up on the stool. it wobbled slightly, her tail swishing back and forth as it instinctively helped in balancing her. It was still strange to have that extra appendage, but it definitely came in handy at times.
Note floated the small cello over to her, resting the end pin on the ground slightly off center from her and leaned the neck down as Melody again hesitated before standing up on her hind legs as she held onto the cello, using it for balance. Once she found a good resting spot where she was leaning just right, Melody found that it wasn’t all that uncomfortable of a position to be in, nor was it as awkward as originally perceived. Now all she had to worry about was actually playing, with hooves... while standing on a wobbly old wooden stool.
What could go wrong?
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Careful about Mr Morden, his assistance comes with a price.
Congratulations on getting into the Featured box!
Did... did she really said that?
Awesome
6701395
I have no idea why you would say such things!
6701611
Tempting fate, she will learn eventually...
6701684 She will not learn... they never learn...
II going to be a a disaster.
I hope you know you can't leave us hanging off this cliff for too long.
Very slow output with chapters but always worth the wait. Love the new chapter cant wait to see if she gains her cutie mark here or just fail magnificently.
Nooooo! Melody why did you have to say that!
Jokes aside loved the chapter, she was adorable in the music shop and Note's wise mentor image was also very nice.
Good work.
nuuuuu need moar
You have tempted fate, Melody. Fate is evil!
Lovely chapter as always.
A part of me fears that it won't work out between Melody and Silver. I hope I'm wrong, because they are really cute and I love how you're building it up. They're just so cute together. 
6701611 Don't worry, she said it sarcastically. Sarcasm is immune to the trials of fate.
6706755
Your avatar... I know I have seen it somewhere before.
6712961 Heh. Filly!Octavia was just so adorable I just had to have her...
Randomly searching around, and yet again, I find another fic I have unexpectedly fallen in love for.
While still following the usual tropes of a human converted to pony by some mysterious force or ending up in Ponyville, it is only till now have I seen one set in a timeline away from the show's chronology. This alone shows that you are comfortable to work beyond the comfort zone of familiarity and safety of using material that is otherwise, overused.
I look forward to your next update, for now, you have my like, fav n follow
The math in this is making my head hurt. If Granita is, for example, 20 and Melody is 5 she cannot be Octavia, because it would mean she is almost 50 years old in the series!
Let's say 2 more years hefore Granita gets married, 20 for her son/daughter to grow up, and another 15-20 for Applejack to get to the age we know her in the show. What is 42+5= 47 and yet Octavia in the series looks to be th3 same age as A.J.
How does that work?
6791646 Your math is not incorrect.
Glad you are enjoying the story, and thanks for pointing out all the spelling errors. I have fixed them.
6792209 My pleasure, it is a good story thus far. I just need more of it... please.
6791646 With Melody being Octavia's Mother or even grandmother, duh!
I just read through all of the chapters and lost quite a bit of sleep because of it. But I think it was well worth it, I enjoyed your story! *Gives thumbs up*
Now continue, pretty please?
6712961 why do I get the feeling this is the backstory of Octavia's mother.personaly I would love that twist
images.sodahead.com/polls/002855945/2057657807_RainbowShrug_answer_101_xlarge.png
Is Melody Harvest just Octavia Melody as a child?
7136288 how long did it take you to figure that out?
7270114
Probably not as long as it's been taking me to write the next chapter
7270114 Longer than I liked.
Even cover image suggests it's Octavia or her predecessor (considering timeline, since Granny in the show is ancient, and Octavia is not).
Still, it was so long without any updates...
6704136
... she be doomed..
I hope she can actually play well