The Strings Of Life

by MLPxMaestro

Chapter Seven- Competition and Redemption

The Strings Of Life:

Chapter 7- Competition and Redemption:

It was now time, time for all of the contestants to report to the back of the stage, as well as into some of the fitting rooms for them to have some privacy to make final adjustments. The time seems to drag on, as some of the contestants’ emotions are ranging from excited to a nervous wreck. Silver Strings was sitting on the complete opposite side of the waiting room as Maestro was, and he seemed cool as a cucumber, playing his violin like a pro for all the contestants to see. He was aiming for some of them to get even uneasier facing such large competition it seemed. But throughout all of the attention and nervousness he was causing to the others in order to hopefully cause them to perform worse, Maestro kept a cool head and his game face on as best as he could.

As for Octavia, why was she willing to truly come to this competition? What was her purpose coming to it for? She never said she came to see Maestro play, but what if it was him she was planning on watching? There’s only one way to find out, and that is to just wait and see.

“Okay we have contestant number one on piano, good luck.”

The pony gave a gulp, and made his way out to the stage. But however, there were judges to his surprise. Hoity Toity was there to judge posture and overall looks from their outfit, the other two were simply volunteer judges who had extensive knowledge on what they should sound like, appropriate song, and soul put into the performance.

The time seemed to fly by to Maestro’s knowledge, but Silver Strings just wanted to get his “victory” over with, and was getting anxious.

“Contestant number twenty-nine…Silver Strings on the violin?”

“It’s about time! Stand back, and watch a master at his work!” he proclaimed in a cocky tone.

“That guy is going to be eating his words.” Maestro thought.

“Number thirty? You’re up next…good luck sir.” Said one of the even directors holding a list of all of the contestants. Marking them off one by one as they performed their pieces.

Octavia sat up in the second story balcony, seeing her “amazing” ex come out to stage like he owned the place.

“Oh Celestia…please make him perform badly.” She thought to herself.

The lights then dimmed and then…he began playing. Sadly though, Octavia’s prayer was not answered, he was playing absolutely stellar. Not a note out of place, and fiddling like his hoofs were about on catch on fire. She had never heard him play so well.

“In the name of Tartarus…I don’t understand?!”

Octavia was shocked, and it didn’t look good for Maestro, atleast to her view. She thought this point would probably crush him as well as he was playing.

He completed his speechless performance, as whispering could be heard all over the theatre, as he left the audience shocked in awe.

“Would the judges please reveal their scores.” Stated the event host.

The first two judges granted him a perfect ten, but Hoity Toity gave him an eight on attire. Little did Silver Strings know, their was a rip that could be seen towards the bottom of his tux, but Silver Strings didn’t even notice until he had received such a score from him.

“What! You can’t be serious! I am the best performer here! You sir, need to sustain me a perfect ten!”

“Your outfit had a rip in it, I rest my case dear boy.” Hoity replied after taking a drink of his water on the judge’s table.

He made his way to the back of the stage, noticing Maestro make his way by.

“I told you…this is mine.” He spoke to him.

“That’s enough from you Silver Strings, act civilized for once.” Maestro replied.

Silver then stood there looking at him in disgust as he continued out towards the stage.

“Ugh, that Earth Pony…no wonder I left Octy.”

The second floor balcony was lit up a little more, as it was now the last performance of the night, and the crowd chances are, expected a good one.

As he made his way out to the middle of the stage, he looked around, observing the atmosphere letting the room give him a special air about himself if he could muster it.

“Letting the room become one with him to become more tranquil? Not many do that anymore…interesting.” Thought one of the judges.

Maestro was then quickly brought out a seat and then a microphone to place fairly close to his instrument for the crowd to hear his performance more clearly.
“Is that Maestro? I never expected him to do such a thing before he began to play? I’ve only known one other Cellist who did the same…a former teacher I had when I was just a teenager.”

Octavia gasped after realizing whom it was.

“Oh my goodness…my old teacher...taught him to be one with his instrument. Could it be? Surely that’s just coincidence, I mean he’s at an awfully old age by now.” She thought again.

As the whispers among the crowd went silent, so did the entire building, fall into silence. So quiet you could hear a pin drop from within the place.

Soon after taking everything in for a moment…he then began to play.

The way Maestro played his piece, almost seeming like it had to do with his emotions across his lifetime. It first started off sad, sounding like a farewell it seemed. Then it progressed to a sound of hope and care, like he had then been with somepony afterward.
A piece of his life was commencing, and the judges had never heard anything like it.

“The music of life…simply gorgeous.” Whispered one of the judges.

“The emotional transition is most exquisite. He is taming the notes like he had been playing this piece all of his life.” The other judge whispered back, as they both nodded in agreement.

“Ugh! That rat! Stealing my win from me.”

Silver Strings could tell from just peeking out from behind one of the red curtains that the crowd was certainly entertained by his performance.

“That piece…I’ve never heard emotion put into it so strongly before. He’s better than I thought he was.” Octavia mumbled to herself.

After about a couple more minutes had gone by, the song ended, as it ended with a peaceful low lull that seemed to be pleasing to the crowd.

Maestro simply gave a bow, then rose back up, grabbed his Cello, and made his way out of the spotlight. But before he could leave the spotlight, Hoity Toity rose up and applauded to him.

“Exquisite sir, marvelous playing indeed!” he clapped his hoofs, as the two other judges rose and applauded along with him.
Soon after, the crowd then applauded, the occasional whistleblower could be heard amongst the crowd, even though it was considered not classy but they didn’t seem to care at this time.
“What? They love him? This is preposterous! An outrage!”

“I thought he played quite well actually.”

“Shut up you buffoon…it’s not over yet.”

“How rude of you sir.”

“How rude of me “Mr. Coordinator for this event”? How rude of me, oh please, I’m Silver Strings, Europe’s finest violinist. He’s not through yet, the voting still needs to be tallied up by the crowd and judges.” He snickered.

Maestro couldn’t believe what he was hearing; he had never heard applause so happy, so jubilant and full of energy. He had only one person to thank for it.

The entire rooms lights then came on, showing the entire crowd applauding for him, making it easier for him to see all of them.

“Now please, settle down everypony! As you all know, this competition is not over yet.” Said the host with a microphone.

“We shall now commence the voting for who you think the winner is. There is a piece of paper under each of your seat ladies and gentlecolts. Please write down with a writing utensil of some kind…who you think has triumphed in this lovely musical collection of contestants.”

The crowd then began whispering and talking amongst one another, for chances were that it might be a close one…but perhaps not, nopony knows.

A good long vote was now underway, as the votes were getting tallied up while they were transported onto the stage in boxes according to the number of contestants.

The crowd then slowly became anxious as to who the winner would be.

“We have a winner! But with further ado, we’re narrowing it down to six of them. Here are your top six musicians!”

A chalkboard then flips around, and to everypony’s surprise, Silver Strings and Maestro…were deadlocked!

The crowd couldn’t believe it, they thought it would possibly go to Maestro, the crowd seemed more in his favor, but that doesn’t mean it changed some of the crowds minds from the looks of it.

“It appears we have a tie. Never has this happened before, but no matter, we have a solution. It shall be declared as…a musical duel between Silver Strings and Maestro!”
“Oh my, this isn’t looking good now.” Octavia thought.

Ten more minutes had passed, as the top two, Silver Strings and Maestro, were on the stage, and ready to play a final piece.

“Please play your best, whichever one stands out the most, wins the competition.” The host stated to both of them.

Silver Strings didn’t care, he knew he had this in the bag, and now for the first time, Maestro knew he was beat. No way he could keep up with Silver’s violin!

A judge then started off the dual, and then…it was underway. “And a one, two, a one-two-three-four.”

Silver immediately started off fast, and Maestro was already slight off rhythm with him. The judges wrote down their thoughts and comments, as they closely observed the two of them.

“Maestro’s not looking good, I can hear it already.” Said Octavia.

“I told him this was mine for the taking, but did he listen? I don’t think so.” Silver Strings thought to himself with a smile of triumph.

The seconds went by, and Maestro was getting more and more out of tune keeping up with Silver.

“Hmm…this won’t do with Maestro I don’t think.” Hoity Toity whispered to the other judges.

“Indeed, I couldn’t agree more. Do we have a final decision?”

The judges then nodded, and proceeded to write down whom they thought the victor was…until…

The sound of a string could be heard as it broke. The judges wondered whose string that could’ve been, and to their surprise…it was Silver Strings.

“No, not now, don’t fail me now Clara.” Silver said to himself in frustration.

Maestro knew this was his chance; his fiddling had gone down tremendously, so he then began playing powerful notes upon the G and C strings, and so forth.

Then, when everything seemed bad enough already, another string broke, and then Silver started freaking out.

“No, no, please anytime but now!” He was now starting to lose focus, and then…began playing off tune.

The judges then drew away their quills, and then began looking at how Maestro was now picking up the pace. They could hear the determination he put within his instrument, how much he wanted to win, they heard it clearly now.

“Maestro is my final decision, I don’t know about you two ladies, but I think he’s superb.” Hoity Toity then smiled, as the two other judges nodded with him in agreement once more.

After their final decision was made, both musicians were ordered to stop.

“We shall now commence to the judges final choices. Hoity Toity sir, your vote is who?”

“My vote is on that lovely Cello…and the prestigious stallion behind it of course, Maestro has my vote.” He grinned.

“Lady Antebellum…your vote please.” The host asked again.

“My vote is for lovely Silver Strings there. He deserves some slack, and his strings have been through hard times indeed.”

“Very well madam. Now our final vote, this is it ladies and gentlecolts. This shall officially determine who wins, and who has faced defeat.”

The host then clears his throat to add on anticipation, for even just a second or two.

“Miss Revenue, your vote please?”

“My vote is…well hmm…”

The crowd’s eyes seemed to grow larger as their anticipation grows.

“Judging by posture, playing on note, looks, emotions during their play, and the soul that went into their lovely pieces of music there, my vote has to be on…number thirty…Maestro!”

The crowd then all stood up cheering and applauding; knowing for one that it has finally came to an end.

“Congratulations to our winner, our victor, our finest Cello player in all of Canterlot!” the host exclaimed among the cheering crowd.

Maestro after hearing that knew he had one more calling inside of him to take care of.

He then grabbed hold of the microphone, and decided he would speak out about somepony.

“Thank you for this honor, I am truly speechless at the moment all of you. But however, it isn’t me you should be congratulating…it is my teacher.”

“My teacher too Maestro…my teacher as well during a period of my life.” Octavia thought, then a smile formed on her face.

“I couldn’t have done this without however the influences of one more pony, for she is out there in the crowd I would imagine.”

Octavia’s ears perk up a little more after she heard that.

“W-what?” she wondered.

“She may not have the reputation she used to have, but all of that was a lie, I just know it was, I couldn’t be anything else.”

“Are you talking about Octavia my dear boy?” Fancy Pants spoke up amongst the crowd in the front row.

“Yes, I am talking about her. Whatever caused her to be ruined, whatever caused her career to ultimately go down the drain, surely that had to not truly be whatever you heard then, was really hers…think about it?”

Octavia couldn’t believe what she was hearing; she never would’ve expected such remarks to ever come out of somepony’s mouth ever again.

“Anyways however, without her influences, the day would have never come to be, that my one teacher that considered me a grandson to them, a part of his own family, the best teacher I ever had.”
Maestro then caught a faint glimpse of Octavia amongst the crowd up in the balcony.

“Octavia, I…I forgive you…and I’m sorry myself for what I did.” Octavia then began blushing a little bit, as she gave a soft grin in return, and putting her hoof over her mouth to help hide some of her emotion on the subject.

The crowd then came to a consensus, and realized that he was right, that she should maybe even be offered a second chance in fame. Soon after the competition, Maestro was awarded a solid gold medal that he wore around his neck, and Octavia through struggling here and there, managed to get down to the first floor, down one of the aisles, then onto the stage with him. She gave him a hug after all he did for her just then.

“Thank you, Maestro…thank you so much. You are a gentlecolt after all.” A single tear then began to secretly make its way down one side of Octavia’s cheek in happiness.