Music of Life

“No, no, RRRRRrrrr NO!” The great Octavia, a young uprising star in the world of classical music, who worked her hooves to the bone to get to where she was hit the wall again. Try as she could, she couldn’t find the right way to end her latest, and perhaps her crowning, piece. She ripped the offending score page from her desk, and proceeded to trample it into the carpet, before sitting down on her haunches to pant for a moment.

“Hey, Octi, you okay in there?” Her roommate called through the barred door. Octavia had learned long ago that the only way to insure her peace and quite was to bar her room door so the over exuberant DJ who was her roommate couldn’t burst in on her when her mind was a light with the tunes that use to flow so effortlessly to her.

With a sigh, Octavia, went to the door, using her hind legs to push away the bookshelf she used to barricade herself in. The door opened to reveal a worried looking Vinyl Scratch, white fur and horn glistening from the bath she just had, her red eyes staring wide at the disheveled earth pony and her blue hair hanging down, yet to be magically blow dried.

“Octi,” Vinyl breathed, looking at Octavia and then to the room. “What happened? It’s like I threw a three day rave in here and forgot to pay the cleaning crew, you okay?”

Ocavia’s one immaculate figure was disheveled, her hair a rats nest, pink bow tie askew, gray fur rumpled and purple eyes red rimed from lack of sleep and bitter tears.

“Vinyl, Is this important?” Octavia demanded tensely. “I have…I have…I-I—” She couldn’t keep together any more. Something inside her snapped so hard, so painfully that she couldn’t hold it in anymore. Throwing her hooves around her roommate, Octavia burst into tears. “Oh Vinyl!” She cried. “It just wont come! I c-can’t finish it!” She sobbed.

Vinyl, who wasn’t expecting such a display of raw emotion from Miss Prissy Pants, awkwardly wrapped a leg around her friend.

“Uh, It’s okay Octi. You’ll, uh, figure it out.” She patted her on the back. “Octi, not going to lie, but your freaking me out a little.” Octavia either didn’t hear this last part, or care, because she hung on so tightly, Vinyl felt like she couldn’t breath. “Okay,” The white unicorn sat down, and used both front legs to pry her historical roommate off. “Get a hold of yourself Octavia!”

That snapped her out of it. Vinyl never said her full first name unless she was being serious. More than a little ashamed, Octavia turned to her thrashed room, staring at the black score chart that was suppose to be the last page of her masterpiece. She had spent mouths on it, and now she was so close to finishing, but…

“It’s no use.” She sigh, shaking her head. “I give up.”

“Oh no you just di-n’t!” Vinyl snapped. The DJ was a sporadic at best most times, but she wouldn’t never let her best friend give up on something she worked so hard to do. “Come on. We’ll be late.”

Octavia blinked, as she turned around in surprise. “Late, for what?”

“The concert.” Vinyl replied. “So brush your mane, and get your hind quarters to the door in five, because I’m going to take you to hear some pony special, and then you can whine and whinny about your lack of expression!”

Stunned with the intensity of her friends statement, Octavia turned to her mirror and did as she was told. Five minutes latter, she was waiting patiently by the front door. Vinyl came down, absent of her usual DJ glasses and wearing a…

“Is that a ribbon in your hair?” Octavia asked in mild surprise.

“Cute isn’t it?” The DJ asked. “Yeah, not really my style, but who we’re going to be seeing likes it.”

“About that.” Octavia started to say, feeling guilty as her best friend was trying so hard to get her out of her slump. “I really don’t—”

“Out we go.” Vinyl cut in, not letting her gray mare roommate finish her sentence.

They walked in silence to the concert hall, which was in the center of town. It was then that Vinyl confessed that she wanted to take Octavia to this concert and got the tickets a few weeks ago, but with the musician fortifying herself in her room for days at a time, Vinyl never found a good time to bring it up. The two ponies stood in line, giving their tickets to the ushers and made their way down the rows until they sat in the very front, where they could see everything perfectly on the low set stage.

“How did you get such good seats?” Octavia asked breathlessly, looking for the first time at the program. The legendary flute player Barra Va’Hooven was playing with the local orchestra, as a special concert where all bits would go to a drive to be donated to the ‘Bit of Music foundation’.

“Hehehe, funny story.” Vinyl said, her face flushing slightly. “Truth is, Barra and I are kinda fans of each other, and so we started Pen Paling a while back. When he was coming to town, he sent me two tickets.”

Octavia’s mouth was opened. “Yo-you know Barra Va’Hooven?”

Vinyl blushed a little more. “Geesh, we’re just Pen Pals. And close your mouth before you attract flies, will ya’?”

Octavia looked away, settling herself back for an enjoyable evening. Vinyl have done a lot of things for her in the past, meaning well of course, but this was the first thing she felt like she was really going to enjoy.

Everyone clapped their hooves together as Barra Va’Hooven took his spot on stage and the concert began. Octavia’s heart melted as Barra’s melody soared, flitting all around like a bird in spring, and fell to a low dirge, as if the wind was blowing through the reeds in the fall. She clapped her hooves the hardest at the end of the concert, turning to her friend.

“That was AMAZING!”

“See,” Vinyl smiled. “Glad you came?”

“Yes. That was truely remarkable.” Octavia bubbled over in awe.

“Like to met the Stallion behind the flute?”

For the second time that evening, Octavia’s mouth fell open. “Y-you mean we can? R-really?”

Vinyl laughed. “Come on Bow Tie, I’ll introduce you to him.”

And so the two friends went on stage and made their way to the changing room. Octavia smiled at the many ponies she knew, and often played with in previous concerts. Since she began working on her latest Symphony, Va’Lu Luna, a special tribute to the return of Luna that would be preformed on her Highness’s next birthday, if she could finish it, she hadn’t seen any of her usual friends in a while. The thought of the unfinished piece brought a shiver of anxiety.

“Barra,” Vynal called loudly, even thought the brown stallion with a flute for a cutie mark was a few feet away with his back turned. “I must say, that last trilly rift was si-ck! You are one talented stallion.”

Barra turned, and smiled. “Why thank you Vinyl. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Vinyl blushed, and Octavia guessed that they might be just a little more than Pen Pals. “Yeah, d-did you get my last track I sent to you?”

“Oh yes.” Barra smiled. “How did it go?” He dropped low, striking a rock pose. “’I won’t say no, I won’t say yes, I’ll just admit to all I’m the bucking best!’” Sang out, head banging, his mane flying everywhere.

Vinyl’s cheeks burned. “Yeah, I really should have changed that last part.” She muttered. “Oh, hey, this is my friend I was telling you about in my last letter. Octavia. Octavia, this is the wicked master of the flute, Barra.”

“Pleasure.” Barra smiled, bowing his head briefly.

“Pleasure is all mine.” Octavia smiled.

“Barra,” Vinyl said. “Why don’t you Octi the story behind your symphony.”

Octavia blinked. “That was your symphony?”

The brown stallion laughed a little, embarrassed. “Yes, as a matter of fact it was. I wrote it last summer. Octavia, have you ever heard of Cystic Fibrosis?” The gray mare shook her head. “It’s a lung disease where mucus grows on the lungs and other organs. It restricts air flow and make it very hard to breath. It’s not curable, but treatable with an oxygen machine and breathing exercises. I was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a young foal.”

Octavia’s eyes grew wide.

“I loved music as a foal, and always wanted to play the flute, but no one thought I could do it. It takes too much air, and my air ways are always clogged.” As if to prove the point, Barra started coughing violently a few times. Without thinking, Vinyl went to Barra’s side, looking up worriedly at his face. It was then that Octavia’s suspicions were confirmed, and she realized that Barra Va’Hooven was a full head taller than her mare friend. “Excuse me.” He apologized after her coughing fit was over. “No one thought I could play the flute until I met Vinyl.”

“Vinyl?” Octavia repeated. “I thought you two were just Pen Pals?”

“We grew up in the same town.” Vinyl explained. “The fillies and foals at school all made fun of him since he didn’t play the same silly games as them. I stood up for him. I told him my dream of becoming a DJ and he told me all about wanting to play the flute. We made each other a promise that we’d become the greatest DJ and flute player Equestria has ever seen.”

“And that’s how it all started.” Barra Continued. “Vinyl moved away a few years latter and we lost contact. I practiced hard, and when I started to get noticed, Vinyl found out where I was staying and started writing me. We’ve kept in contact ever since.”

Octavia was at a lost for words. The tragic story of a lost of a dream only to become realized again because of a friendship and to blossom into more fired her mind and fueled her passion. The two contradicting melodies that she saw before her blended, synching in a chord that was so beautiful, tears came to her eyes.

“Uh, Octi? You okay?” Vinyl asked, noticing the tears running down her friends cheeks.

“Yes.” She said. “Yes, I am. I’m more than alright. If you two would excuse me, I have a symphony to finish!” And with that she turned and bolted for the back door, galloping home, not bothering to shut the front door behind her, she cantered up the stairs, and walked to her black score sheet, no longer seeing it blank, but filled with notes that weren’t there, yet. Picking up her quill she started marking them, thinking of the beautiful clash of melody that was the music of life.

520 views